Ozon Partners With Russia’s Tax Service to Simplify Accounting for AUSN Sellers
Ozon sellers will no longer have to worry about reconciling marketplace transactions for Russia’s Automated Simplified Tax System (AUSN). The marketplace has launched a free service with the Federal Tax Service (FTS) to address the problem.
Many entrepreneurs using AUSN for e-commerce did not realize they had an accounting problem until a year after switching to the tax regime, when the FTS assessed additional taxes and fined them for inaccurate reporting. The issue arose because the marketplace transferred sales revenue to sellers’ bank accounts after deducting its commissions. Automated tax reports reflected that reduced amount rather than the full value of the goods sold.
Marketplace Settlements, Reconciled Automatically
Consider a simple example: a product sells for 1,000 rubles (about $12), the marketplace deducts a 100-ruble commission (about $1) and transfers the remaining 900 rubles to the seller. Under AUSN, the seller must report the full sale amount, not just the money received in the bank account. Until now, entrepreneurs had to track marketplace transactions themselves, including deductions, returns and adjustments, and reconcile them against bank statements to avoid being penalized for reporting errors they might not even realize they had made. From now on, sellers no longer have to handle this themselves. Ozon is taking on the role of a digital intermediary for tax accounting. It automatically generates the relevant data and submits it to tax authorities. The seller must consent to the data transfer and can review the information before it is sent to the FTS or disable automatic submission altogether.
Automating this process offers two benefits. First, it reduces manual work and minimizes the risk of errors when reconciling complex transactions, a particularly important advantage for small businesses without an in-house accountant. Second, it streamlines dealings with the tax agency: sellers can review and submit data through a single interface without transferring information to separate accounting systems.
For small businesses, this means less administrative overhead, and that reduction could encourage more entrepreneurial activity. The government also benefits: tax administration becomes more efficient without requiring additional audits or enforcement actions.
Connecting the Digital Systems
Ozon’s service illustrates how automated regulatory compliance is moving beyond specialized tools built for large corporations and into everyday products for small businesses. Other e-commerce platforms are likely to introduce similar services. The FTS’s pilot program for exchanging data with marketplaces has already established a regulatory framework for such initiatives. Commercial platforms are also being integrated with government systems in other sectors of the economy.
Over time, Ozon could expand automated data exchange within its own platform to cover more complex transactions, including adjustments to accrued charges, partial refunds and recalculations for previous reporting periods.
A Tax Experiment
Russia launched its AUSN pilot in 2022 to reduce reporting requirements and automate tax calculations as much as possible. Initially, the regime was available in just four regions: Moscow, the Moscow Region, Kaluga Region and the Republic of Tatarstan. In 2025, it was extended to entrepreneurs selling goods and services through intermediaries, including online marketplaces. Operators of platforms such as Ozon, Wildberries, Yandex Market, Megamarket and Avito joined the FTS’s data-exchange system.
In January 2026, the pilot was expanded significantly and now covers almost all Russian regions. The number of banks included in the FTS registry for AUSN also increased, from 11 to 35.
Toward a Unified Tax Infrastructure
Under the legislation, the pilot is scheduled to run through the end of 2027. The remaining time could be enough to build a comprehensive tax-accounting infrastructure in which sales, returns, commissions and payouts are automatically reconciled across marketplaces, banks, accounting systems and the FTS. International experience shows that closer data exchange between e-commerce platforms and tax authorities is an established trend. Russia is developing a model in which government agencies, digital platforms and financial institutions exchange data automatically, allowing entrepreneurs to focus on growing their businesses rather than managing administrative procedures.
