As you probably remember, in the "Magnitsky case," crooks from Tax Inspectorate No. 28 (including my personal favorite, Vladlen i_feel_bitter Stepanov), protected by the Investigative Committee, the Interior Ministry, and the FSB (Russia’s security service), siphoned 5.4 billion rubles from the budget under the guise of refunding overpaid corporate profit tax. Those who deal with taxes know perfectly well that most theft through "tax schemes" has happened, and still happens, via fake VAT refunds. Stealing money through corporate profit tax refunds is more of an exotic variation. Honest businesspeople can spend years trying to get such refunds and often succeed only through a court ruling. Yet some operators get their VAT refunded at lightning speed. Novaya Gazeta studied unusual VAT refunds processed by Tax Inspectorates No. 28 and No. 25 and found that billions were stolen this way. In 2009-2010, 11 billion rubles.
Interestingly, 3.5 billion of those 11 billion were funneled out through companies registered to our old acquaintance Yulia Gorskaya, née Baeva. Here is what they wrote about her in those same Transneft materials on embezzlement during construction of the ESPO pipeline (Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline).
In 2007-2008, fake contracts worth billions were run through her companies. Everyone knew it. Her name has surfaced in dozens of money-laundering and cash-out schemes. But the tax authorities, in some cases, stand firmly on the principle of the presumption of innocence: they refunded VAT to Baeva/Gorskaya instantly. Anyone who has gone through the HELL of getting a lawful VAT refund will appreciate this.
All these "refund specialists," along with their boss — Nadezhda Sinikova, head of the Moscow office of the Ministry for Taxes and Levies — have now quite successfully moved on to jobs at Rosoboronpostavka. I’ve written before about how they go about their work at Rosoboronpostavka. It seems less and less likely to me that tricks like this could have been pulled off without protection — or, more likely, direct guidance — from the then minister for taxes and levies, Mr. Serdyukov, who later brought Stepanova and Sinikova over to Rosoboronpostavka.
The country’s defense is in reliable hands. Those hands will not treacherously tremble or let go of the saw. And do read the article in Novaya. It’s instructive. PS Blog by Magnitsky’s colleague Jamison Firestone on the same subject.