“Scheduled inspections” of business entities abolished

On January 1, 2018 a Decree changing the rules for inspections comes into force.

Previously, coordination plans for monitoring inspections were made by the State Inspection Committee in order to carry out scheduled inspections for each half-year. Organizations were included in the plan depending on their degree of risk of committing an administrative violation (high, medium and low).

Presidential Decree no 376 of October 16, 2017 abolishes planned inspections. Instead, selective inspections will be carried out. Under the new decree, an organization can be included in the plan only if the monitoring body has information that indicates a high risk of violation of the law and it is impossible to find out and (or) to eliminate violation through other forms of state control (supervision).

The new Decree establishes a list of gross violations of the requirements of the Decree by officials of monitoring authorities, such as appointing an inspection without substantial basis, exceeding inspection deadlines, exceeding the competence of the controlling body; requesting information that does not relate to issues under monitoring.

In addition, the period for which compliance with tax legislation can be checked is reduced. Thus, as a general rule, tax checks will be carried out only for up to five years. At the same time, exceptions to this rule should be noted (for example, a longer period of activity can be checked in an inspection by order of prosecuting authorities in criminal cases).

Source: National legal Internet portal of the Republic of Belarus (NLIP) 18.10.2017, 1/17314

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