Possible freezes: entrepreneurs are increasingly faced with account locks
Russian entrepreneurs are increasingly faced with the blocking of their accounts, business associations say. At the same time, cases of unjustified restrictions are also recorded: for example, an individual entrepreneur lost access to funds for failure to pay insurance premiums, although he had no employees. Experts attribute the increase in such incidents to the authorities' active struggle against "gray" wages and to banks' measures against operations similar to drop schemes. Earlier, the Central Bank stated that banks in some cases overreact when blocking accounts of individuals. To what extent such restrictions are justified for business, see the Izvestia article.
Why are business accounts blocked?
Russian businesses are increasingly facing the blocking of bank accounts. Sometimes this happens unreasonably, due to mistakes by individual bank employees or an overly cautious policy of the financial institution as a whole, said Maxim Barashev, managing partner of the BBNP law firm and a member of the Moscow Business Russia.
For example, one Moscow businessman reported that the Federal Tax Service had temporarily blocked his account for allegedly failing to pay insurance premiums. At the same time, the sole proprietor did not have such a duty due to the lack of employees (Izvestia studied the letter addressed to the Tax Service). After reviewing the appeal, the Moscow Office of the Federal Tax Service declared the restriction illegal.
Since the fall of this year, such complaints have become more frequent. Most often, account blocking paralyzes all business processes, creating the risk of financial losses. According to Maxim Barashev, entrepreneurs have recently faced increased control and "excesses" from the authorities, especially in the fight against the payment of salaries in "envelopes". Izvestia sent a request to the Federal Tax Service with a request to explain the reasons for this practice.
The trend is also confirmed by lawyers. Mass blockages occur almost from scratch, said Ekaterina Kosareva, managing partner of the analytical agency VMT Consult. This will last until the system adjusts itself, she is sure.
According to Alexander Kiselyov, managing partner of PROV Law Firm, restrictions are imposed not only due to insurance premiums, but also due to non-payment of taxes, penalties or fines, failure to submit a declaration, failure to comply with the requirement from the tax authority to receive documents through electronic document management.
— The Federal Tax Service has the right to warn about the upcoming suspension of operations on the account 14 days before taking action. But since such notification is an optional procedure, in practice, entrepreneurs do not receive it," he noted.
Since the beginning of 2025, Rosfinmonitoring has received 840 requests from citizens and companies regarding the blocking of bank accounts. The number of such cases has increased, but the agency did not specify by how much. It was previously explained there that this is due to banks' measures against operations with signs of drop schemes, when citizens are involved in shadow business calculations or the withdrawal of criminal funds.
This year, individuals also faced more frequent money blockages on their cards. Banks began to deprive Russians of access to their money for months, Izvestia wrote earlier. Credit institutions are sometimes concerned about even making several transfers to friends or making a transfer in a store.
The increase in complaints about unreasonable restrictions suggests that they have "overreached" in the fight against fraud, the head of the Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, said earlier. According to her, the Central Bank had to resolve situations when customers were denied access to money without explanation.
What to do when an account is blocked
The first thing an entrepreneur should do, who, in his opinion, has been unlawfully blocked for not submitting a RSV, is to make sure that this is the reason for the blocking, said Sofya Lukinova, head of the legal department at VMT Consult.
— The FTS service has the opportunity to send a request for current suspensions. Another option is to contact the bank. Credit organizations block accounts according to regulations, which explain the reason for the requirement," she explained.
In this case, the lawyer recommended preparing documents that prove that there is no obligation to file insurance payments, for example, the absence of concluded employment contracts.
— At the same time, if on January 1 of the reporting year there was at least one employee, and on January 2 the sole proprietor no longer had employees, the obligation to submit reports on the RSV lies with him throughout the reporting year. The entrepreneur should make sure that this is not the situation, otherwise the blocking will be legal," advised Sofya Lukinova.
Insurance payments must be made not only for employees under an employment contract, but also for individuals involved on the basis of GPH, recalled Alexander Kiselyov from PROV. He added: the tax authority is often suspicious of sole proprietors without employees, as this may serve as a signal that employees are informally involved in tax evasion.
If, after all, the blocking was illegal and the businessman suffered losses, then they can be compensated in court, Sofya Lukinova explained. And there are such precedents. For example, in October it became known that the courts had recovered 1 million rubles from the tax service for mistakenly blocking the company's account.
To date, very often it is not possible to quickly remove the lock, even if all the necessary documents are provided, said Sergey Elin, an expert on financial and legal business security at the Moscow State Educational Institution Opora Russia. In his opinion, the mechanism in this part needs to be improved.
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