Reduced insurance premium rates for simplifiers: application procedure

Who can apply the reduced contribution rate

During 2017–2021, those employed in the production and social spheres and listed in subparagraph 5 of paragraph 1 of Article 427 of the Tax Code pay insurance contributions only for compulsory pension insurance at a rate of 20% (subclause 3. clause 2 of article 427 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation ).
If a “simplified” beneficiary’s amount of payments in favor of an employee, calculated on an accrual basis from the beginning of the year, exceeds the income limit (in 2021 – 876,000 rubles), insurance premiums are not charged for the amount of such excess.

The category of beneficiaries includes, in particular, companies:

producing food products, textiles, footwear, furniture, vehicles and equipment;
carrying out scientific research and development;
engaged in the repair of household products and vehicles;
conducting activities in the field of education, healthcare, construction, provision of social services, transport and communications;
retail traders of pharmaceutical, medical and orthopedic products;
producing furniture;
producing sporting goods, games and toys.

Such activity must be the main one, that is, the share of income from the sale of products or services provided must be at least 70% of the total income (clause 6 of Article 427 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

In addition, the total annual income of a “simplified” person should not exceed 79 million rubles (clause 3, clause 2, article 427 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). The amount of income is determined according to the rules of Article 346.15 of the Tax Code.

And finally, the type of activity code according to OKVED must correspond to the preferential type of business.
EXAMPLE.
HOW TO CALCULATE PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS AT A REDUCED TARIFF UNDER THE STS A company that uses the simplified tax system produces office furniture (OKVED code 31.01). Income from this production exceeds 70% of the company's total income, so furniture production is its main activity. For 6 months of the company’s activity, the total amount of its income amounted to 15,000,000 rubles, which is less than the maximum permissible value of 79,000,000 rubles. Consequently, the organization is included in the list of “simplified” beneficiaries listed in paragraphs. 5 p. 1 art. 427 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation and those entitled to a reduced rate of insurance premiums. The company’s employees received a salary for June in the amount of 300,000 rubles. From the amount of these payments, the organization will pay insurance pension contributions in the amount of 60,000 rubles. (RUB 300,000 × 20%).

If the income of a “simplified” person from a preferential type of activity is less than 70% or exceeds the limit of 79,000,000 rubles, he will have to switch to paying contributions at the general rate.

“Simplified” people can confirm the benefit with the following documents:

application for transition to the simplified tax system (form 26.2-1);
a copy of the tax return according to the simplified tax system with the tax office’s mark of acceptance;
a copy of the income and expense ledger;
breakdown of income by type of income (certificate of the organization, certificate confirming the main type of economic activity).

According to the Federal Tax Service, expressed in letter No. GD-4-11/ [email protected] , firms and individual entrepreneurs on the simplified tax system that manage car parking areas are classified as beneficiaries.

This is due to the fact that according to OKVED 2 (OK 029-2014 (NACE Rev. 2)), the activity of vehicle parking has the OKVED activity code 52.21.24. This type of business belongs to group 52.21 “Auxiliary activities related to land transport” of class 52 “Warehousing and auxiliary transport activities” of section H “Transportation and storage”.

This means that those companies and individual entrepreneurs on the simplified tax system whose main activity is parking for vehicles with the OKVED2 code 52.21.24 have the right to apply reduced insurance premium rates. Provided that the conditions for limiting annual income and the share of income from the main type of activity are met.

Circumstances of the dispute

The Customs and Transport Terminal Society applied to the Moscow Federal Tax Service No. 14 with an application to receive state support measures as the enterprise most affected by the coronavirus and the accompanying lockdown at the beginning of 2021.
The court denied the company coronavirus benefits

How do medical organizations take into account the income of the simplified tax system?

For companies using the simplified tax system, whose main activity is in the field of healthcare and the provision of social services, a reduced rate of insurance premiums has been established until 2018 inclusive.

Such organizations pay an insurance premium for compulsory pension insurance in the amount of 20%. Contributions for health insurance and compulsory social insurance in case of illness and in connection with maternity are not paid. Provided that the annual income of such medical organizations does not exceed 79 million rubles (clause 5, clause 1, clause 3, clause 2, article 427 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

The amount of income is determined according to the rules of Article 346.15 of the Tax Code. The total amount of income includes income from the sale of goods (work, services) and property rights (Article 249 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), as well as non-operating income (Article 250 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Income that is not taken into account when determining the tax base for income tax is listed in Article 251 of the Tax Code. These, in particular, include funds received by medical organizations for the provision of services under compulsory health insurance (CHI) contracts.

But, according to the Ministry of Finance, this does not mean that compulsory medical insurance funds are excluded from the total amount of all income of the organization. To determine the main type of activity of a medical organization in order to pay reduced premium rates, sales revenues must include both income from the provision of paid medical services and services within the framework of compulsory medical insurance (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated May 13, 2021 No. 03-15-07/ 28994).

By the way, the conditions for applying preferential tariffs in terms of sales income do not depend on the object of taxation of the “simplified” tax.

Cassation position

During the hearing, the lawyer for the Customs and Transport Terminal stated that the appeal had mistakenly chosen a formal approach to this dispute, although instead the court should have examined the factual circumstances of the case, Pravo.ru provides details. And the representative of the tax service asked to leave the resolution of the 9th AAS in force.

The RF Armed Forces will deal with the OKVED code during a bankruptcy moratorium

Loss of the right to a reduced rate of insurance premiums

loses the right to apply reduced tariffs if, at the end of the reporting period, the main type of its economic activity does not correspond to that initially declared. Or if its annual revenue exceeds 79 million rubles.

In this case, the company will have to recalculate contributions at the generally established rate from the beginning of the quarter in which this discrepancy occurred (clause 6 of Article 427 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

The restored amount of insurance premiums is transferred to the budget. In this case, you do not need to pay penalties.

This is explained by the fact that the restored amount of insurance premiums is not an additional payment due to incomplete payment of insurance premiums on time. After all, in previous periods the reduced tariff was applied lawfully. This means that there are no grounds for accruing penalties.

Since 2021, new OKVED will be in force

On January 1, 2021, Rosstandart introduced OKVED2 instead of OKVED1. However, despite the transitional keys, not all old activity codes coincided with the new ones. Because of this, starting from 2021, not all organizations could apply reduced insurance premium rates.

The Russian Ministry of Finance, in letter No. 03-15-07/66964 of the Russian Ministry of Finance dated October 13, 2017, allowed the continued application of reduced tariffs to those who enjoyed the benefit until 2021. Even the types of activities OKVED1 and OKVED2 do not coincide. However, this state of affairs was rather strange. After all, benefits must be applied on the basis of regulatory legal acts, and not with the permission of officials.

Loss of the right to the simplified tax system

If the payer of the simplified tax system applied a preferential tariff for insurance premiums, but lost the right to the simplified tax system, he is obliged to recalculate contributions according to general tariffs and make an additional payment. Penalties are not charged in this case (letter of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated April 21, 2015 No. 17-4/B-595). Insurance premiums are recalculated from the beginning of the quarter in which the conditions for applying the simplified tax system were violated (for example, the company’s income exceeded the permissible limit).

As in the case of loss of the right to a preferential tariff, this amount of recalculation of contributions is not an additional payment due to their incomplete payment on time. Since the organization, in the period in which the detected violation occurred, lawfully transferred insurance payments at a reduced rate, in accordance with the conditions for applying the simplified tax system. Therefore, no penalties are paid when recalculating contributions.

Appeal decision

But the appeal reversed this decision. The judges of the 9th AAS decided in January that tax authorities should check the compliance of OKVED codes only on formal grounds and should not check the actual activities of the applicant for a subsidy. The Court of Appeal recognized the decision of the tax service as lawful (case No. A40-134982/2020).

How does the OKVED code affect receiving a “coronavirus” subsidy?

What has changed since November 27, 2017

On November 27, 2021, Federal Law No. 335-FZ dated November 27, 2017 came into force. In this regard, the names of preferential types of activities now coincide with the names of the structural units of OKVED 2. And now there is no need to use transition keys between the classifiers OKVED1 and OKVED2.

The new list of preferential types of activities eliminates the problem of discrepancies between individual codes according to OKVED 1 and OKVED 2. Thus, in particular, previously it was unclear whether organizations and individual entrepreneurs could apply reduced tariffs for the following types of activities:

activities of travel agencies and tour operators;
computer equipment management;
repair of machinery and equipment, repair of electrical equipment.

These types of activities are included in the new list. This means you can definitely apply the benefit!

The new edition of the amendments applies to the period starting from January 1, 2021. Therefore, if an organization transferred insurance premiums at the usual rate during 2021, then it should submit updated calculations of contributions to the Federal Tax Service, as well as applications for offset (refund) of overpaid payments.

New list and new codes

Let's assume that the company's type of activity code begins with the numbers from the left column of the new list of preferential types of activities according to the simplified tax system. If so, you can pay insurance premiums at reduced rates, which means you can apply a reduced rate (subject to other requirements). Here is a table with the new OKVED2, valid from November 27, 2017:

OKVED code 2	Name of the grouping of activities from the list given in the Tax Code
10	Food production
11.07	Production of soft drinks, production of mineral waters and other bottled drinking waters
13	Textile production
14	Manufacture of wearing apparel
15	Production of leather and leather products
16	Wood processing and production of wood and cork products, except furniture, production of straw products and wicker materials
17	Production of paper and paper products
20	Production of chemicals and chemical products
21	Production of medicines and materials used for medical purposes
22	Production of rubber and plastic products
23	Production of other non-metallic mineral products
24.33	Production of profiles using cold stamping or bending
24.34	Wire production using cold drawing method
25	Production of finished metal products, except machinery and equipment
26	Production of computers, electronic and optical products
27	Electrical Equipment Manufacturing
28	Production of machinery and equipment not included in other categories
29	Production of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers
30	Manufacture of other vehicles and equipment
31	Furniture manufacture
32.2	Production of musical instruments
32.3	Production of sporting goods
32.4	Production of games and toys
32.5	Production of medical instruments and equipment
32.9	Production of products not included in other groups
33	Repair and installation of machinery and equipment
37	Wastewater collection and treatment
38	Collection, processing and disposal of waste, processing of secondary raw materials
41	Building
42	Construction of engineering structures
43	Specialized construction works
45.2	Vehicle maintenance and repair
47.73	Retail trade of medicines in specialized stores (pharmacies)
47.74	Retail trade of products used for medical purposes, orthopedic products in specialized stores
49	Activities of land and pipeline transport
50	Water transport activities
51	Air and space transport activities
52	Warehousing and auxiliary transport activities
53	Postal and courier activities
59.1	Production of films, videos and television programs
60	Activities in the field of television and radio broadcasting
61	Activities in the field of telecommunications
62	Computer software development, consulting services in the field and other related services
63	Activities in the field of information technology
68.32	Real estate management on a fee or contract basis
72	Research and development
75	Veterinary activities
79	Activities of travel agencies and other organizations providing services in the field of tourism
81	Maintenance activities for buildings and grounds
85	Education
86	Health activities
87	Residential care activities
88	Providing social services without providing accommodation
90.04	Activities of cultural and art institutions
91	Activities of libraries, archives, museums and other cultural facilities
93.11	Activities of sports facilities
93.12	Activities of sports clubs
93.13	Activities of fitness centers
93.19	Other activities in the field of sports
95	Repair of computers, personal and household items
96	Activities providing other personal services