We report VAT according to the new rules

Deadlines for submitting VAT returns

The VAT declaration is submitted to the Federal Tax Service quarterly in electronic form, no later than the 25th day of the month following the expired quarter (clause 5 of Article 174 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). In 2021, the declaration must be submitted within the following deadlines:

• for the fourth quarter of 2021 - no later than 01/27/2021;
• for the first quarter of 2021 - no later than 04/26/2021;
• for the second quarter of 2021 - no later than July 26, 2021;
• for the third quarter of 2021 - no later than November 25, 2021;
• for the fourth quarter of 2021 - no later than 01/25/2022.

We report VAT according to the new rules

On December 28, 2021, an order was issued on a new VAT return form.

Many people wonder why the tax authorities were not satisfied with the previous form and why it was necessary to develop a new one? It's simple: the VAT form no longer fully corresponded to its purpose and required urgent processing.

Now a new VAT return form must be completed starting from the 1st quarter of 2021. And it already takes into account all the latest innovations.

Who is affected by the amendments? What legislative adjustments are taken into account in the updated form? What lines appeared in the new form and how much has the technology for filling it out changed? Let's figure it out.

Who reports VAT?

VAT is a federal tax. The following are recognized as VAT payers:

• organizations (including non-profits);
• entrepreneurs.

At the same time, all VAT taxpayers can be divided into two groups:

• taxpayers of internal VAT. That is, VAT paid on the sale of goods (works, services) in the territory of the Russian Federation;
• taxpayers of import VAT, which is paid when importing goods into the territory of the Russian Federation.

How is value added tax calculated?

VAT is calculated from the difference between the sales price and the purchase price of the same product from another company. If you do not take into account simple resale, then VAT is included in the total cost of the goods produced and consists of purchased materials and components. VAT amounts are calculated at the appropriate tax rate, which is a percentage of the tax base.

If transactions are taxed at different rates, separate accounting is maintained, and the amount of VAT is determined by adding up the tax amounts calculated separately for each transaction. The taxpayer is also required to maintain separate accounting if part of the transactions he carries out are exempt from taxation.

The calculated VAT is reduced by the amount of the tax deduction. The amount of tax that the buyer paid when purchasing goods on the territory of the Russian Federation or when importing goods into the customs territory of the Russian Federation is accepted for deduction. If the taxpayer does not calculate the tax base for VAT, then he has no reason to deduct the amount of VAT paid in the cost of the purchased goods.

Please note that a taxpayer can deduct input VAT only if he has taken into account the goods, works, and services purchased by him. This must be confirmed by relevant source documents and invoices issued by the supplier.

A tax deduction cannot be applied if:

• the taxpayer's expenses are economically unjustified;
• business operations are unprofitable and unprofitable;
• invoices are not reflected in the accounting journal or are reflected untimely;
• there is no state registration of the acquired object, if it is mandatory;
• the counterparty was chosen without due diligence and caution, the counterparty from whom the taxpayer purchased the property did not comply with the requirements of tax legislation;
• the taxpayer’s actions are seen as a desire to extract unjustified tax benefits.

Tax calculation procedure

When an entrepreneur applies a single VAT rate to all of his transactions, the tax base must be determined in total in accordance with the requirements of Article 153 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Thus, if, based on the results of tax calculation in a certain tax period, the amount of the tax deduction is greater than the total amount of VAT calculated based on the results of all taxable transactions performed by the taxpayer, the resulting negative difference must be reimbursed to the taxpayer, the VAT payable to the budget in this case is assumed to be zero.

For example, in the case of foreign persons who are not registered with the tax authorities of the Russian Federation and are not Russian taxpayers. If such persons sell goods on the territory of the Russian Federation, then enterprises and individual entrepreneurs purchasing such goods are required to pay VAT.

It turns out that they act as tax agents (clause 3 of Article 166 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). In this case, accounting is carried out separately for each transaction related to the sale of goods by foreign taxpayers.

The amount of VAT that must be paid by the tax agent to the budget is determined on the basis of the invoice and is paid by him in full.

A controversial issue regarding the calculation of VAT and the application of tax deductions is the absence of taxable transactions for the taxpayer in the reporting period. However, the Ministry of Finance came to the conclusion that the taxpayer’s use of tax deductions in those tax periods in which he did not have a tax base is justified. The Federal Tax Service of Russia supports this position.

Tax payment deadlines in 2021

The procedure and deadlines for paying VAT are specified in paragraph 1 of Art. 174 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Tax payment should be made monthly by the 25th day of the quarter following the reporting period, dividing the amount of calculated tax in equal shares. If the payment deadline falls on a weekend, it is automatically postponed to the next working day.

VAT payment deadline in 2021:

You can transfer the entire amount in one payment before the 25th of the first month, or pay 1/3 of the part by the 25th of the first month, and 2/3 by the 25th of the second month.

An exception to this procedure are tax agents.

That is, those who purchase goods and materials and services from foreign entities that are not registered with the Russian Federal Tax Service. In this case, the tax regime of the tax agent is not important. This also includes persons purchasing services (in the form of rent) from state authorities and local governments.

The declaration is submitted upon completion of the transaction no later than the 25th day of the month following the reporting quarter. The agent is obliged to pay VAT to the budget before payment for the purchase. Otherwise, the bank does not have the right to accept a payment for payment of goods and materials to the seller for whom the payer is a tax agent. The basis for calculating tax is determined for each transaction separately.

Thus, if one transaction was carried out during the year, then the declaration must be submitted once for the quarter in which it was carried out.

Conclusion: the deadline for paying VAT depends on who the person is: a regular VAT payer or a tax agent.

What happens if a company does not report VAT on time?

The Tax Code of the Russian Federation provides for taxpayer liability for late payment of tax. Punishment in the form of a penalty always occurs, but a fine is assessed only if the reason for late payment of VAT was an understatement of the tax base.

If the tax authority determines that the understatement was deliberate, the amount of the fine will double - from 20% to 40%. In this case, the fine can be reduced if the taxpayer has at least one mitigating circumstance.

What has changed in the declaration?

In 2021, the new VAT return takes into account the latest innovations, so some of its sections have changed.

With the advent of the new declaration form, the list of reporting entities has not generally changed. It was replenished by companies and individual entrepreneurs using the Unified Agricultural Tax.

The changes to the form affected sections 3 and 9, as well as some appendices.

This takes into account the emergence of a new rate of 20%, but the previous rates of 18% and 18/118 have not completely disappeared. They are present in sections 3 and 9 along with the new tax rate, as they are necessary for application during the transition period (for transactions that began before 01/01/2019 and ended later). At the same time, a significant part of the sections and annexes of the declaration remained unchanged. 1C users should take into account that if they have not updated the 1C program for VAT 20%, they will not be able to correctly download the declaration from the database.

Please note that the new instructions for filling out the report

approved together with a new VAT return form by the same order of the Federal Tax Service No. SA-7-3/853. However, it has changed slightly.

A description of the lines first entered into the form appears. There is an explanation for filling out the declaration by buyers of scrap metal, waste paper, raw hides, secondary aluminum and its alloys. In particular, those of them who do not pay VAT on themselves fill out Section 2 in the new declaration in the following order:

The Federal Tax Service has transferred the adjusted procedure to the instructions. If earlier controllers suggested that tax agents who do not pay VAT not fill out lines 010-030, now the instructions stipulate that they must include dashes in them.

Operation codes

The new declaration uses new and clarified transaction codes. The Federal Tax Service has summarized the information about transaction codes that it previously provided in separate letters. New codes have also appeared in this list:

Let's summarize:

The VAT return for the 1st quarter of 2021 is drawn up on a new form. New lines have been added to sections 3, 9 and individual appendices. Changes have also been made to the procedure for filling out the declaration: new transaction codes have appeared and previous transaction codes have been clarified, and the features of how individual transactions are reflected in the declaration are described. The deadlines and methods for submitting the report remain unchanged.

Draw your attention to!

When setting up data exchange within a distributed 1C information base, situations may occur that lead to errors. However, not all such situations are errors in their pure form: some of them can be attributed to normal situations corresponding to the data exchange protocol, some to the inability of the configuration to work within a distributed information base.

If you are configured to exchange data between 1C databases of several departments, we recommend checking the status of 1C exchanges, since with a distributed database they have several nodes.

If you need help in exchanging 1C databases, we will advise you, set up rules for exchanging 1C data, also with other IT solutions, and select the desired format for exchanging data with 1C. Call us, we will help you check the status of data exchange if you have distributed 1C databases.

Procedure for filling out a VAT return

Order of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation dated October 29, 2014 N ММВ-7-3/ [email protected] approved the form of the VAT declaration, the procedure for filling it out and the electronic format for submission. Complete the declaration as follows:

• title page. In the field “at location (accounting) (code)” - 214. And in the field “Tax period (code)” - 23;
• Section 3 contains the calculation of the tax amount for ordinary transactions. It does not need to reflect non-taxable transactions and transactions at a 0% rate;
• You need to transfer data from the purchase and sales books to sections 8 and 9. Attachments to these sections are needed only for updated declarations;
• Section 1 should be completed last. Line 030 is filled in only if the company is exempt from VAT, but has issued an invoice. To line 040 you need to transfer the amount of VAT payable from line 200 of section 3. If VAT is refundable, in line 050 you should indicate the amount from line 210 of section 3, and leave line 040 empty.

Additionally you need to fill out:

• section 2 - if the company pays VAT as a tax agent, for example when leasing state property;
• section 7 - if there were non-taxable transactions in the period.

The remaining sections are intended for specific operations. In particular, section 10 - 11 are handed over by intermediaries - commission agents and agents, and sect. 4 - 6 - exporters.

Please note that by Order of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation dated August 19, 2020 No. ED-7-3 / [email protected] changes were made to the VAT declaration form, the rules for filling it out and the electronic format. The updated form takes into account the latest legislative changes regarding the addition of lists of VAT-free transactions (laws dated 04/15/2019 No. 63-FZ, dated 06/08/2020 No. 172-FZ, dated 07/26/2019 No. 211-FZ, dated 07/31/2020 No. 265 -FZ).

These include:

• free transfer of real estate to the treasury of the Russian Federation, property for the treatment of coronavirus;
• implementation of MSW management services;
• transfer of exclusive rights to domestic computer programs.

Also, the laws of December 25, 2018 No. 493-FZ and of June 6, 2019 No. 123-FZ included the sale of airport services for international flights and flights within the Russian Federation not through Moscow and the region into the list of transactions subject to a zero VAT rate.

The corresponding codes appeared in Appendix No. 1 “Operation Codes”.

The innovations apply to reporting for the fourth quarter of 2020.

Before submitting your VAT return, we recommend that you check its data with the indicators in your income tax return . The fact is that if there are discrepancies, tax authorities will require clarification. Moreover, the court supports this requirement.

Who submits VAT reporting and in what form?

The tax return in the form approved by Order of the Federal Tax Service dated October 29, 2014 No. ММВ-7-3/ [email protected] is submitted by:

• organizations and individual entrepreneurs that are required to pay VAT (2018) in accordance with Article 143 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation;
• tax agents who are charged by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation with the responsibility for calculating, withholding and transferring value added tax to the budget of the Russian Federation;
• tax agents who are not payers, carrying out activities in the interests of another person on the basis of commission agreements or agency agreements.

declarations can be found at the end of the article.

Typical errors in the VAT return that tax authorities identify

As part of control activities, inspectors most often identify the following errors in VAT returns:

1. Incorrect transaction code for the sale of goods (work, services) to VAT payers

In section 9 “Information from the sales book” of the declaration, taxpayers-sellers reflect transactions of the sale of goods (work, services) to buyers - VAT payers, using transaction type code 26 (“Sales of goods (work, services) to persons who are not VAT payers”). Invoices with code 26 do not participate in the process of comparing invoices from section 8 “Information from the purchase book” of the buyer’s declaration and invoices from section 9 of the seller, as a result of which auto claims are generated to taxpayers for identified discrepancies.

2. Errors when deducting VAT in parts

The right to deduction can be used within 3 years from the date of its occurrence, and the amount of tax on the invoice can be declared in installments over several tax periods (letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated May 18, 2015 No. 03-07-RZ/28263). At the same time, taxpayers, when deducting VAT in parts, incorrectly fill out column 15 of the purchase book (cost of purchases according to the invoice) (line 170 of section 8).

Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 26, 2011 No. 1137 established that when accepting invoices for deduction in parts, column 16 of the purchase book (VAT amount on the invoice) (line 180 of the section reflects the part of the total tax amount that is accepted for deduction in the current quarter. And in column 15 of the purchase book (line 170 of the section) the cost of goods (work, services) is always indicated, indicated in column 9 on the line “Total payable” of the invoice, without dividing into parts.

In addition, in column 13b of the sales book (invoice value of sales) (line 160 of section 9) and in column 14 of the invoice journal (cost of goods) (line 160 of section 10) it is also necessary to reflect the total cost of sales according to the invoice - invoice without division.

3. Incorrect recording of import transactions

Taxpayers in the purchase book and section 8 of the declaration incorrectly reflect import transactions from EAEU member countries (transaction type code 19) and from other countries (transaction type code 20).

Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 26, 2011 No. 1137 established that when reflecting in the purchase book a transaction for the import of goods from the EAEU, in column 3 “Number and date of the seller’s invoice” of the purchase book, the registration number of the application for the import of goods from the territories of the EAEU states, assigned tax authority, and the date of registration of the application for the import of goods and payment of indirect taxes.

When reflecting in the purchase book a transaction for the import of goods from other countries not included in the EAEU, in column 3 “Number and date of the seller’s invoice” of the purchase book the number and date of the customs declaration are indicated.

4. Incorrect completion of the title page of the declaration if it is submitted by the legal successor

When submitting a declaration for another organization as a legal successor, in the title page in the column “Code of the place of submission,” code 215 (“At the location of the legal successor who is not the largest taxpayer”) or 216 (“At the place of registration of the legal successor who is the largest taxpayer”) is indicated with indicating the code of the reorganization form, TIN and KPP of the reorganized company in the appropriate columns. If in this situation, on the title page in the column “Code of the place of submission” you indicate code 213 (“At the place of registration as the largest taxpayer”) or 214 (“At the location of the Russian organization that is not the largest taxpayer”), the declaration will be considered submitted for oneself . As a result, the previously submitted form receives the status “irrelevant”.

Thus, as a result of these errors, discrepancies arise, leading to increased paperwork and an undesirable burden on both the taxpayers themselves who committed violations and their counterparties.

Letter from the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation for the Moscow Region dated December 9, 2016 No. 21-26/ [email protected] “About typical errors when filling out a VAT return”

Note:

Let us remind you that as part of a desk audit, if contradictions are discovered, tax authorities have the right to request clarification. If a company has an obligation to submit a VAT return in electronic form, then explanations to it are submitted in the same form.

Explanations on paper are not considered submitted.

A fine in the amount of 5 thousand rubles is collected in case of failure to submit (untimely submission) explanations to the tax authority when the updated tax return is not submitted on time (clause 1 of Article 129.1 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). In case of repeated violation - 20 thousand rubles.

Filling rules

The current declaration includes a title page and 12 sections. There are also appendices for three sections.

The title page and section 1 are required to be completed. It must be completed by all persons required to submit a report. Including when submitting a zero declaration. The remaining sections and appendices are filled in if there are relevant operations.

Most often the composition of the declaration is as follows:

When performing transactions with a special taxation procedure, additional sections must be completed, for example:

• section 2 - when paying tax as a tax agent;
• 4-6 - when carrying out transactions at a rate of 0%;
• section 7 - when performing non-taxable transactions;
• Sections 10 and 11 - if activities are carried out in the interests of third parties under agency agreements.

Tax authorities have introduced an accelerated desk audit of VAT returns

A desk audit of the declaration claiming VAT refund can be carried out within a month from the date of its submission. Under the day of submission of the declaration, the deadline for its submission rises. This measure applies if the taxpayer:

• does not apply the declarative procedure for VAT refund;
• has a low (medium) level of risk (like its counterparties);
• in the previous period received confirmation of reimbursement of at least 70% of the declared amount;
• paid more taxes in the three previous years than he claimed for reimbursement.

The declaration is checked for errors, contradictions with other information available to the tax authority, discrepancies with the information of other taxpayers, and violations of tax legislation. If, after making a decision on VAT refund, an understatement of the tax (tax base) as a result of distortion of information, the presence of unaccounted for taxable items and other violations of tax legislation are revealed, the inspectorate must consider including the taxpayer in the plan for conducting on-site inspections.

Such clarifications are given in the letter of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation dated October 6, 2020 No. ED-20-15/ [email protected]

Responsibility

For failure to submit a VAT return on time, liability is provided under Art. 119 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. For each full or partial month of delay in the declaration, a fine of 5 percent of the tax not paid on time is collected. The maximum penalty is 30 percent of the tax not paid on time on a late return. If the company did not pay the tax on time or violated the deadline for submitting the “zero” declaration, then the fine will be collected in the minimum amount - 1 thousand rubles.

Do not forget that if the taxpayer submits a return on paper, it will be considered unsubmitted. In this case, a sanction will follow under Art. 119 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Please note: an error in the VAT return format is not punishable by a fine. In the Resolution of the Arbitration Court of the North Caucasus District dated December 2, 2016 No. F08-9002/2016, the judges noted that clause 1 of Art. 119 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation provides for a fine for failure to submit a declaration as such. Violation of the declaration format does not fall under this rule.