March 22. Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. Tax authorities of the Vitebsk region detected over 200 cases of entrepreneurial activity without state registration in January-February 2012, as reported to BELTA correspondent by Tatiana Myasoedova, Head of the Tax Inspectorate for the Vitebsk Region. One of the tax authorities' work areas is the identification and suppression of illegal entrepreneurial activities. The relevance of this issue lies in the fact that citizens engaged in unregistered activities create competition for legally operating business entities and do not pay taxes and dues. In the current year, 54 administrative offence reports were drawn up against violators, amounting to Br11.5 million. The head of the regional tax authority pointed out that illegal entrepreneurial activity entails administrative liability in the form of a fine of up to 100 base units, with possible confiscation of items, instruments, and means used to commit the administrative offence, regardless of their ownership, as well as income obtained from such activity. In cases of obtaining income in a large or particularly large amount through illegal entrepreneurial activity, criminal liability is provided. At the same time, the tax authorities see their task not only in suppressing illegal activities but also in bringing them out of the shadow economy and attracting them to taxation. According to Tatiana Myasoedova, the simplified registration procedure allows one to obtain the status of an individual entrepreneur or legal entity within one day. Thus, over two months of this year, out of the total number of individuals engaged in unregistered entrepreneurial activity, 20 people registered as individual entrepreneurs, and two legal entities were established. In 2011, over 1.4 thousand citizens legalised their activities by registering as individual entrepreneurs. -0-

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