Simplified taxation system: overview and current features

Current as of December 20, 2016

As you know, organizations and entrepreneurs wishing to switch to the simplified tax system, as well as those who are already working under this special regime, must comply with certain tax restrictions. In particular, the “simplifier” (potential and current) must comply with the income limit . The taxpayer will lose the right to transfer or apply the simplified tax system if his income goes “outside the limits”. Let's see what changes await the simplified people in 2021 , and whether they affect the income limit under the simplified tax system .

Changes to the simplified tax system regarding the income limit for 9 months

The limit on income for nine months has been increased to 112.5 million rubles, at which an organization has the right to switch to the simplified tax system (paragraph 1, clause 2, article 346.12 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, as amended by Federal Law No. 401-FZ of November 30, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as the Law) No. 401-FZ)).
This value will be applied when switching to the simplified system from January 1, 2021 (Information from the Federal Tax Service of Russia “On the change from January 1, 2021 to the income threshold for switching to the simplified tax system”). For organizations that switched to the simplified tax system from January 1, 2021, the amount of income for the nine months of 2021 is no more than 59.805 million rubles (the maximum income value is 45 million rubles (paragraph 1, clause 2, article 346.12 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation as amended before 01.01 .2017), increased by the deflator coefficient (paragraph 2 of clause 2 of Article 346.12 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation as amended before 01/01/2017), established for 2021 in the amount of 1.329 (order of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia dated October 20, 2015 No. 772 (hereinafter - Order No. 772))).

We note that for the period from 2021 to 2021, the norm on indexation of the income limit that allows you to switch to the simplified tax system (Part 4, Article 5 of Federal Law No. 243-FZ of July 3, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as Law No. 243-FZ)) has been suspended. The value of the deflator coefficient for 2021 is 1 (Part 4 of Article 4 of Law No. 243-FZ).

Thus, from 2021 to 2021, the nine-month income limit is 112.5 million rubles.

Example

Alpha LLC works on the simplified tax system with the “Revenue” object. The company's revenue for 2021 by quarter and cumulative total since the beginning of the year is shown in the table.

million rubles

In the 1st and 2nd quarters, the company’s revenue did not exceed the standard limit, so the additional tax for 3 and 6 months must be accrued at the regular rate:

STS3 = 50 x 6% = 3.0 million rubles.

STS6 = 110 x 6% – 3.0 = 6.6 – 3.0 = 3.6 million rubles.

For 9 months, revenue exceeded 150 million rubles, but remained less than 200 million rubles. Therefore, from the beginning of the 3rd quarter, tax must be calculated at a transitional rate of 8%. The additional tax for 9 months will be equal to:

STS9 = (110 x 6% + (180 – 110) x 8%) – 3.0 – 3.6 = 12.2 – 3.0 – 3.6 = 5.6 million rubles.

In the 4th quarter, the revenue of Alpha LLC exceeded 200 million rubles, so the company must switch to OSNO from the beginning of this quarter.

Changes to the simplified tax system relate to the limit on the cost of fixed assets

From 2021, the limit on the residual value of fixed assets has been increased to 150 million rubles, above which the organization does not have the right to apply the simplified tax system (subclause 16, clause 3, article 346.12 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation; Law No. 243-FZ; letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated November 7, 2016 No. 03 -11-11/65043).
Thus, if the residual value of fixed assets as of October 1, 2021 was more than 100 million rubles, but as of January 1, 2021 did not exceed 150 million rubles, the organization has the right to apply the “simplified tax” from January 1, 2021 (letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated 11/29/2016 No. SD-4-3/ [email protected] ).

We note that initially legislators wanted to increase the limit to 1 billion rubles (draft Federal Law “On Amendments to Part Two of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation” (prepared by the Ministry of Finance of Russia on March 25, 2016)), but officials considered this inappropriate, since an increase could lead to a reduction tax revenues to the budget (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated May 12, 2016 No. 03-11-11/27340).

In addition, although, according to the Tax Code (subclause 16, clause 3, article 346.12 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), the limit in question applies only to organizations, according to the Ministry of Finance of Russia, individual entrepreneurs also lose the right to apply the simplified tax system if the limit is exceeded from the beginning of the quarter in which excess (letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated October 28, 2016 No. 03-11-11/63323, dated January 20, 2016 No. 03-11-11/1656).

Criteria for choosing a tax system

The possibility of choosing one or another regime is influenced by a number of factors:

• in what organizational and legal form the entity operates (PJSC, LLC, individual entrepreneur, other);
• what type of activity does the entity conduct, does it have export-import operations;
• number of staff;
• the amount of income received, its uniformity and regularity;
• availability of fixed assets on the balance sheet and their value;
• main consumers and their status;
• Possibility of tax benefits.

These are the main points that can influence the choice and its possibility of a taxation system. In addition, there are also restrictions on the need to correctly reflect the consumables in the documentary format.

Changes to the simplified tax system for the annual income limit

The income limit for the tax period (calendar year (clause 1 of Article 346.19 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation)) has been increased to 150 million rubles), if exceeded, the taxpayer loses the right to use the simplified tax system (paragraph 1 of clause 4 of Article 346.13 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, as amended. Law No. 401-FZ).
In 2021, the income limit for the year was 79.740 million rubles (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated April 29, 2016 No. 03-07-11/25412) (the value of the maximum income was 60 million rubles (paragraph 1, clause 4, article 346.13 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation as amended . until 01/01/2017), increased by the deflator coefficient (paragraph 4, clause 4, article 346.13 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation as amended before 01/01/2017), established for 2016 in the amount of 1.329 (Order No. 772)).

For the period from 2021 to 2021, the norm on indexation of the income limit allowing the use of the simplified tax system (Part 4 of Article 5 of Law No. 243-FZ) has been suspended.

For 2020, the deflator coefficient is 1 (Part 4 of Article 4 of Law No. 243-FZ).

Thus, from 2017 to 2021, the income limit for the tax period is 150 million rubles.

Costs for independent assessment of qualifications

Since 2021, an institute for independent assessment of qualifications for compliance with professional standards has been introduced.
This is a procedure for confirming compliance of an employee’s qualifications with the provisions of a professional standard or qualification requirements established by federal laws and other regulatory legal acts (clause 3 of Article 2 of Federal Law No. 238-FZ of July 3, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as Law No. 238-FZ)). When conducting a qualification assessment at the direction of the employer, he pays its cost (Part 2, Article 4 of Law No. 238-FZ; Part 2, Article 187 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). At the same time, in order to stimulate participation, the cost of the assessment can be included in expenses when calculating the base for the “simplified” tax (subclause 33, clause 1, article 346.16 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Accounting is carried out in the same way as expenses for training in basic and additional professional educational programs, professional training and retraining of workers (clause 3 of Article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

The employer is obliged to keep documents confirming the costs of undergoing an independent qualification assessment for the entire duration of the contract for the provision of such services and one year of work of the employee who underwent the assessment, but not less than four years.

Changes in the payment of taxes by another person

From November 30, 2021, tax payment can be made for the taxpayer by another person.
Moreover, this person does not have the right to demand the return of the paid amount from the budget system of the Russian Federation (paragraph 4, paragraph 1, article 45 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation as amended by Law No. 401-FZ). From 2021, this rule also applies to insurance premiums (paragraph 1, clause 9, article 45 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). The purpose of the innovation is to improve the performance of obligations to pay taxes and insurance premiums. The legislator clarified how to take into account transfers to the budget made by third parties. They are reflected in expenses in the amount actually paid by the taxpayer when repaying the debt to a third party. If there is a debt to pay taxes, fees and insurance premiums, the costs of its repayment are reflected within the limits of the debt actually repaid during those periods when the taxpayer repays it to a third party (subclause 3, clause 2, article 346.17 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, as amended by Law No. 401 -FZ).

How to reduce the simplified tax system

The state allows us (businessmen) to reduce taxation of the simplified tax system on insurance premiums for individual entrepreneurs and employees.

Reducing the simplified tax system Income 6%

The 6% simplified tax system can be reduced by insurance premiums for employees and entrepreneurs.

It is the amount of tax payable that is reduced:

• Reduction if the activity is carried out by the entrepreneur himself. In this case, there are no restrictions for reduction and an individual entrepreneur can reduce the tax amount by 100%;
• Reduction of the simplified tax system (USN) of 6% on insurance premiums of employees when an individual entrepreneur is engaged in other activities. You can reduce the insurance premiums of employees, but no more than 50% of the amount of the tax itself (in our case, when calculating the 6% simplified tax system tax, it turned out to be 6,000 rubles, it can be reduced by no more than 50%, that is, by 3,000 rubles);
• Reduction of the simplified tax system (USN) 6% when individual entrepreneurs and employees are engaged in the same activity, in this case, insurance premiums of individual entrepreneurs + insurance contributions of employees (assuming 17200). In our case, nothing changes and the tax amount is also reduced by 50%, that is, by 3,000 rubles.

Reducing the simplified tax system Income minus expenses 15%

In this case, the tax itself cannot be reduced, but the tax base itself is reduced.

But you can reduce the tax base by 100% of expenses on insurance premiums.

If we take our example with expenses, we get (100,000 - 75,000 - insurance premiums) * 15%

Let us assume that the amount of insurance premiums for employees and individual entrepreneurs is the same as in the case of the simplified tax system. Income is 17,200 rubles.

In this case, simplified tax system = (100,000 – 75,000 – 17,200)*15% = 1,170 rubles.

As you can see, with high expenses, it is more profitable to use the simplified tax system: Income minus expenses of 15%.

It is worth noting that for the simplified tax system Income minus expenses of 15% there is a so-called minimum tax of 1% of the organization’s total turnover, and it makes no difference that nothing is earned or even a loss (1% must be paid in any case).

Changes to the simplified tax system: zero rate for individual entrepreneurs

Since 2015, constituent entities of the Russian Federation have been given the right to provide a two-year “tax holiday” for newly registered individual entrepreneurs (Federal Law No. 477-FZ dated December 29, 2014).
We are talking about a tax rate of 0 percent for “simplified” workers operating in the production, social and scientific spheres, as well as in the field of personal services (Clause 4 of Article 346.20 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). The legislator introduced a number of technical clarifications to eliminate double interpretation of the provisions of the Tax Code (Law No. 243-FZ; Federal Law dated July 3, 2016 No. 248-FZ).

Firstly, a zero rate can be introduced for entrepreneurs who have chosen the object of both “income” and “income reduced by the amount of expenses” (paragraph 1, paragraph 4, article 346.20 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Previously, it was not stated for which object the preferential rate applies, and no restrictions were specified (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated May 5, 2016 No. 03-11-11/26185).

Secondly, during the period of zero rate, entrepreneurs with the object “income reduced by the amount of expenses” do not pay the minimum tax (paragraph 2, paragraph 4, article 346.20 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation) (1% of income), because the minimum tax does not apply when object “income” (clause 6 of article 346.18 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Thirdly, types of activities in the production, social and scientific spheres, in respect of which a zero rate is established, are determined on the basis of the All-Russian Classifier of Types of Economic Activities OKVED2 (OK 029-2014 (NACE Rev. 2) (adopted and put into effect by order of Rosstandart from 01/31/2014 No. 14-st (hereinafter referred to as Order No. 14-st); paragraph 3, clause 4, article 346.20 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Previously, the All-Russian Classifier of Services to the Population (OK 002-93) OKUN was also used (adopted and put into effect post of the State Standard of Russia dated June 28, 1993 No. 163), but it became invalid on January 1

The essence of the simplified tax system 2021

STS – simplified taxation system

. This is a special regime that allows you to significantly reduce the tax burden and reporting for entrepreneurs and LLCs compared to the OSNO tax (general taxation system).

There are two types of taxation under the simplified tax system:

• simplified tax system Income 6%;
• Simplified taxation system Income minus expenses 15%

Simplified taxation system Income 6% in 2021

USN Income 6%

— implies payment of a tax in the amount of 6% of the total turnover of the types of activities to which this special regime applies.

This tax regime is best suited for the service sector and retail trade, where there is a high margin (that is, simply mark-up on goods).

This taxation should be used if your clients are not only individuals, but also legal entities, as well as budgetary organizations.

Example: You provided some service worth 100,000 rubles, in this case the tax amount will be 100,000 * 6% = 6,000 rubles.

At the same time, the number of expenses that you incurred (with services they are minimal) is of no interest to anyone at all.

Simplified tax system 15% in 2021

Income minus expenses 15%

— implies payment of a tax in the amount of 15% of the organization’s net profit.

Most often, the simplified tax system of 15% is used for wholesale sales, or with a minimum margin (small markup on the product).

To put it simply: when your business has a lot of expenses, it will be more profitable to use the simplified tax system of 15%.

Example: You provided a service worth 100,000 rubles, and you incurred expenses of 75,000 rubles.

In this case, the tax amount will be: (RUB 100,000 – RUB 75,000)*15% = RUB 3,750.

IMPORTANT! The simplified taxation system replaces the OSNO tax. It is also prohibited to apply simultaneously the simplified tax system Income 6% and the simplified tax system Income minus expenses 15%; according to the law, you can only apply one of these tax regimes.

But it is not prohibited to change them in accordance with the law. As a rule, in 95% of cases since the beginning of the New Year

Simplified tax system 0% in 2021

At the moment, there are so-called tax holidays, in which the tax rate of the simplified tax system = 0.

In relation to the simplified tax system, tax holidays are applicable, with several restrictions:

• They are available only for newly opened IPs;
• Activities must be social, scientific or industrial.

What types of activities fall under tax holidays, that is, simplified tax system = 0, are decided by regional authorities.

You can see a list of these types of activities on the website of the city administration where your individual entrepreneur is open.

Look through everything carefully and you will find this regulation.