--- title: "Tax audit of Svetofor in Tula: 147 mln underpayment and about 396 errors attributed by the company to AI processing" description: "The Federal Tax Service in Tula Region assessed Svetofor with 147 mln rubles in tax underpayments in an audit report. The company found about 396 errors in the document and attributes them to AI usage without human verification." date: 2026-11-14T12:00:34.578Z lang: en url: https://xab.info/en/posts/svetofor-tax-audit-ai-tula tags: [tax-audit, artificial-intelligence, svetofor, fns-russia, business] author: "Andrey Kosynko" publisher: "XAB.info" --- # Tax audit of Svetofor in Tula: 147 mln underpayment and about 396 errors attributed by the company to AI processing ![Neon icon of a computer processor and stacks of coins on a dark background symbolizing AI financial errors](https://xab.info/media/2026/11/14/nalogovaya-proverka-svetofor-ii-tula/nalogovaya-proverka-svetofor-ii-tula-1.webp) ## Key Points - The Tula Region tax office notified Torgservis 71 (Svetofor) in an audit report of a 147 mln ruble tax underpayment. - The company found about 396 errors in the report, including dating the 'SMO' to 2021 and a cucumber weight discrepancy (11 kg vs 689 kg). - DMPRAVO lawyer Daria Mikhailova attributes the errors to automated document processing without human review; DMPRAVO is handling 30 similar complaints across seven regions. - FTS Head Daniil Egorov confirmed the fragmentary use of AI in specific agency tasks in June 2026. In September 2026, the Federal Tax Service Administration for Tula Region sent an audit report to Torgservis 71, the company managing regional stores of the Svetofor chain, citing a tax underpayment of 147 million rubles. According to chain representatives, this exact amount has brought the company to the brink of bankruptcy. The report itself, according to the company's lawyers, contains about 396 errors, which they believe stem from machine processing of documents using artificial intelligence without proper human verification. ### Core claim: fictitious contract and 'director in the SMO' The inspectors' central claim concerns a fruit and vegetable supply contract from August 2021, which the tax authority deemed fictitious. The report states that the supplier company's director could not have signed the document because, according to inspectors, he had already volunteered for the 'SMO' in January 2021. However, as Svetofor points out, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine did not begin until a year later, in 2022, making the report's phrasing internally contradictory. An additional discrepancy concerns weight discrepancies: in March 2025, the difference between the ordered and actually received weight of cucumbers was 11 kilograms according to the company, whereas the tax report lists this figure as 689 kilograms. ### Deliveries that 'never happened' A separate block of claims relates to the period from January to March 2026: inspectors concluded that the supplier Alliance-MF did not deliver fruit and vegetables to the chain's stores. According to Svetofor, this conclusion was based on reports where the supplier indicated supply periods instead of exact dates, which the company argues is not equivalent to a lack of deliveries. Combined, these contradictions and arithmetic inaccuracies amount to approximately 396 errors in a single document, according to the lawyers' assessment. ### 174 pages of objections and inspectors' silence Torgservis 71 submitted objections to the regional tax office, attaching 174 pages of evidence. Daria Mikhailova, head of the DMPRAVO law firm, stated that the administration reviewed the objections the day after receiving them. According to her, the tax leadership twice refused to answer a direct question on whether they had read the audit report. The outcome of the review of objections has not been specified in public data. Mikhailova links the nature of the errors—in dates and calculations—to machine document processing without substantive human verification. ### AI in tax authorities: confirmed, but 'fragmentary' tool The issue of using artificial intelligence in the Federal Tax Service's work is not hypothetical: in June 2026, agency head Daniil Egorov confirmed that the service uses AI for certain tasks, while emphasizing that its application is 'very disparate, very fragmented' to 'see how it works.' According to Mikhailova, DMPRAVO is handling 30 complaints regarding tax audits across seven regions and suspects AI use in every case. 'Everyone knows that the SMO started in 2022. Only a program that passes off assumptions as facts might not know this. I see machine processing whose results have not undergone full and substantive human verification,' the lawyer stated, adding that the text of the report is voluminous, with confident formulations and references to legislation, but when analyzing a specific delivery, the document's logic, in her assessment, 'falls apart.' At the time of publication, the tax office's position on the substance of the company's claims had not been disclosed in open sources. ## Accounts differ ### Validity of the supply contract and weight discrepancies - **Tula Region Tax Administration:** The fruit and vegetable supply contract from August 2021 is fictitious because the supplier's director, according to the report, could not have signed it having volunteered for the 'SMO' in January 2021; in March 2025, the cucumber weight difference was 689 kg; in January–March 2026, Alliance-MF did not deliver products. ([novayagazeta.eu](https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/11/14/ispolzovanie-ii-nalogovoi-sluzhboi-chut-ne-privelo-tulskoe-podrazdelenie-seti-svetofor-k-bankrotstvu-news)) - **Torgservis 71 / Svetofor:** The contract is valid; in March 2025, the cucumber weight difference was 11 kg; the report contains about 396 errors, and the conclusion about the lack of deliveries in January–March 2026 is based on reports with periods instead of exact dates. ([novayagazeta.eu](https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/11/14/ispolzovanie-ii-nalogovoi-sluzhboi-chut-ne-privelo-tulskoe-podrazdelenie-seti-svetofor-k-bankrotstvu-news)) *Where they agree:* An audit report containing a claim for 147 mln rubles in underpayment was compiled and sent to the company; Torgservis 71 filed objections with evidence against it. ## Fact-Check & Sources - [Использование ИИ налоговой службой чуть не привело тульское подразделение сети «Светофор» к банкротству](https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/11/14/ispolzovanie-ii-nalogovoi-sluzhboi-chut-ne-privelo-tulskoe-podrazdelenie-seti-svetofor-k-bankrotstvu-news) - Primary source: Tula Region tax office audit report on 147 mln rubles underpayment, ~396 errors calculated by the company, quotes from DMPRAVO lawyer and FTS Head D. Egorov regarding fragmentary AI use. The tax authority's position on the merits was not provided. ## FAQ ### What tax underpayment amount did the tax authority claim from Svetofor? According to the company, the Tula Region tax audit report indicates an underpayment of 147 million rubles. ### What does the company attribute the audit report errors to? Svetofor and DMPRAVO lawyers believe that about 396 errors in dates and calculations occurred due to machine processing of documents using AI without proper human verification. ### Does the Federal Tax Service confirm using AI? Yes. In June 2026, FTS Head Daniil Egorov confirmed the use of AI in certain tasks, describing it as 'disparate' and 'fragmented'.