 ️ Legal Digest for Small Business: 3 Cases You Should Know A brief overview of what actually happened in courts and regulatory bodies this week — no fluff, just practice. 1. Unpaid leave + sick leave ≠ benefits An employee took unpaid leave, periodically interrupted it with sick leave — and did not work for more than a year and a half. The Social Fund considered the scheme artificial, and the court agreed: the disability benefit was deemed illegal. Takeaway for business: if an employee is on long unpaid leave and sick leave occurs "within" that period, the Fund may refuse reimbursement. It's better to have the employee return to work for at least one day between periods. 2. VAT deduction after 3 years — possible if you prove it An organization claimed a VAT deduction for a 2020 transaction in its Q1 2024 declaration. The tax authority refused — the deadline had passed. But the courts sided with the company: if the deduction was not claimed earlier for objective reasons (complexity of the transaction, foreign counterparty), the three-year barrier is not absolute. For small business: check "old" transactions with non-residents — you might still be able to reclaim VAT. 3. Rosreestr changes rules for paying for extracts from the Unified State Register of Real Estate Starting May 16, 2026, you will have 14 calendar days to pay for extracts instead of 7. It seems like a small thing — but if you regularly order extracts to check counterparties, the new deadline gives more flexibility. Convenient for small business, where accounting doesn't always keep up with cash flow. Question for you: which of these cases have you encountered in your practice? And what legal topic would you like to see analyzed in the next digest?