Tax amnesty for individuals and individual entrepreneurs in 2021

“Two things are inevitable in life: death and taxes.” These are the words of the American politician Benjamin Franklin. But, as we know, there are exceptions to any rule.

And while scientists around the world are struggling to create a philosopher’s stone or an elixir of immortality (but this is not certain), we will talk about a more mundane topic - writing off tax debt.

And before we talk about writing off tax debt, you need to understand a little how it is formed.

Tax amnesty 2021 for individuals

The tax amnesty was introduced by Federal Law No. 436 of December 28, 2017 on the initiative of the President of the Russian Federation. The tax authorities managed to write off most of the debts in 2021, but what they did not have time to do will continue to be done in 2020. The norms of Federal Law No. 346 (for example, Articles 11, 12) contain changes that allow you to write off debts for:

• taxes;
• insurance premiums;
• penalties and fines for non-payment of mandatory payments.

The said Federal Law supplemented Art. 217 of the Tax Code (list of income that is not subject to personal income tax) by paragraph 72, thanks to which the list included taxpayer funds acquired during the period from 01/01/2015 to 12/01/2017 under two conditions:

1. Personal income tax was not deducted for them.
2. The tax agent (the person who deducts personal income tax from the income paid by him and transfers it to the budget) informed the tax office and the taxpayer about this (under paragraph 5 of Article 226 of the Tax Code).

The new paragraph also talks about the means that the exemption does not affect, including the following:

• awards for labor, works, services;
• dividends, interest;
• material benefit, which is determined under Art. 212 NK;
• profit in kind, it is determined according to Art. 211 Tax Code, here are gifts from organizations, individual entrepreneurs;
• winnings, prizes that are received as a result of competitions, games and other events.

Consequently, the tax amnesty, in accordance with the law, applies, for example, to payments for utilities or amounts of loans that have been written off, i.e., “notional receipts.”

Corresponding instructions to paragraph 72 also appeared in Art. 228 Tax Code (clauses 6 and 7). The amnesty does not apply if personal income tax was paid or collected before the Federal Law of December 28, 2017 No. 436 came into force or when the tax amount for free receipts has already been collected

For individual entrepreneurs, under the amnesty, arrears and penalties, as well as fines that appeared as of 01/01/2015, will become hopeless and written off. Moreover, such a write-off will also affect those who lost their individual entrepreneur status before such a decision was made.

The following will not be amnestied:

• MET;
• excise taxes;
• payments for the movement of goods across Russian borders.

The decision on tax write-offs for individual entrepreneurs is made in many ways similar to write-offs for individuals. The Federal Tax Service accepts it automatically at the place of registration of the entrepreneur, indicating the same data as for individuals; the TIN must be entrepreneurial.

The Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation has prepared a draft Order “On approval of the Procedure for writing off arrears and debt on penalties, fines and interest recognized as uncollectible”: you can view it on the website for posting draft regulatory documentation.

The draft lists cases in which a tax debt will be considered uncollectible:

• if an individual or individual entrepreneur is declared bankrupt;
• if, by a court decision, the period for collecting the arrears is deemed to have expired;
• if it is established that taxes have been transferred from the payer’s account, but for some reason have not been transferred to the budget account.

Also, debts will be written off in the event of the death of an individual and the liquidation of a legal entity.

For individual entrepreneurs, debts are written off for all taxes as of 01/01/2015 and for penalties that have accrued since this period. Ilya Trunin, who holds the position of Deputy Minister of Finance, added that the exception is taxes for which an amnesty will not be carried out, namely:

• Mineral extraction tax (mineral extraction tax);
• excise taxes;
• taxes that are payable in connection with the transport of goods across borders.

This debt amounts to 41 billion rubles and affects 42 million people.

In addition, the 2021 tax amnesty for individual entrepreneurs also includes forgiveness of debt on insurance premiums (including fines and penalties) that arose before January 1, 2021:

• to the FSS (Social Insurance Fund);
• to the Pension Fund of Russia (PFR);
• in the MHIF (Compulsory Health Insurance Fund).

This will also apply to those entrepreneurs who did not actually conduct business activities. At the same time, Makarov added that the write-off of debts on insurance premiums will affect those individual entrepreneurs who, although they were not active, remained in the status of individual entrepreneurs.

Those whose debts will be forgiven include the following categories of citizens:

• individuals;
• IP;
• lawyers, notaries, and private practitioners.

The basis for writing off debts will be the amount of debt to the tax office or funds.

The Federal Tax Service will be responsible for writing off debts:

• at the location of the debtor’s property;
• at his place of residence.

Personal participation of taxpayers in writing off these debts will not be required.

The tax authorities will carry out the amnesty automatically. A citizen is not obliged to submit and provide certificates and various documents to the Federal Tax Service. You can check whether your debts have been written off in your taxpayer’s personal account. The Federal Tax Service is also obliged to send a decision on debt write-off to your registered address of residence. Then you can transfer the resulting decision to the bailiffs who conducted the debt collection proceedings.

According to the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation, work on writing off debt will be carried out by tax inspectorates in several stages. As of March 1, 2018, the main work on writing off the debt of individuals for property taxes and the debt of individual entrepreneurs for taxes related to business activities has already been completed.

At the next stage, the remaining tax debt of individuals and individual entrepreneurs will be written off, as well as the debt on insurance premiums, including those accrued from the amount of 8 minimum wages.

Let us say right away that the tax amnesty affected individuals and individual entrepreneurs. However, for a clearer perception of the material, let us explain the difference between these categories.

Next, let’s look at how exactly “Putin’s” tax amnesty will affect “physicists” and individual entrepreneurs.

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Citizens pay land and transport taxes, property tax on individuals on the basis of tax notices. Also see “Consolidated tax notices in 2021: distribution”, “Generation of consolidated tax notices”. When people receive notifications from the Federal Tax Service, they often see in them accrued taxes, as well as debt on them and increased penalties.

All listed taxes for individuals are covered by the new tax amnesty. Thanks to the commented amendments, the arrears accrued by “physicists” as of January 1, 2015 are completely written off. Also, penalties accrued on this arrears are subject to write-off (Article 12 of the law under comment).

Please note that no special conditions are provided for writing off debts for transport, land and property taxes, in particular:

• it does not matter whether a person is a pensioner or not;
• the size of the income of the debtor and his family does not matter;
• the reason why a person did not pay taxes on time does not matter.

There are also no restrictions on the minimum and maximum amount of taxes - all arrears as of January 1, 2015 are subject to write-off. And penalties are canceled as of the date the tax inspectorate (IFTS) made the decision to write off.

Let’s assume that as of January 1, 2015, an individual had a transport tax arrears of 9,000 rubles. By the end of 2021, penalties were charged for the arrears - 3,447 rubles. Total debt: 12,3447 rubles. This entire amount will fall under “Putin’s” tax amnesty.

An individual entrepreneur can apply one of five taxation systems and pay taxes within this system. Let's list the main taxes that businessmen pay.

Article 12 of the law under comment provides for the write-off of tax debts of individual entrepreneurs. It is stipulated that the following are considered uncollectible and subject to write-off:

• arrears on all taxes as of January 1, 2015 (except for the mineral extraction tax, excise taxes and taxes payable in connection with the movement of goods across the border of the Russian Federation);
• arrears of penalties for the specified arrears and arrears of fines as of the date the tax inspectorate made a decision to write off debts.

In relation to individual entrepreneurs, we are talking about writing off any amounts of tax debt. So, for example, tax authorities will be required to write off debts for any amount, for example, under the simplified tax system, UTII or patent tax. All penalties and fines are also cancelled. There are also no special requirements or conditions for applying the tax amnesty for individual entrepreneurs. That is, the very fact of having a tax debt as of January 1, 2015 is in itself grounds for amnesty.

Whose debts will be written off?

As stated above, the amnesty will affect entrepreneurs and individuals, and this category of taxpayers means:

• Individual: they mean citizens who have rights and legal capacity. Legal capacity of citizens arises at birth, and legal capacity - after adulthood;
• Individual entrepreneur: by entrepreneur I mean an individual who has gone through the procedure of registering her as an entrepreneur. Having received this status, an individual has the right to carry out activities aimed at making a profit, that is, entrepreneurial.

Over what period is debt written off?

Write-off is carried out according to the following principle:

• debts on certain taxes that arose before the beginning of 2015. This list includes most types of payments, but there are also those that will not be affected;
• contributions to social funds whose payment date occurred before 2021.

As you know, before 2021, payments to social funds were administered by them, and after that the tax office became responsible for their collection.

Important! There is no amnesty for insurance premiums for individual entrepreneurs related to injuries.

The tax authorities will forgive part of the debts

How individual entrepreneurs achieve write-off through the court if the tax office is late

Everything is clear with the bankruptcy and death of the individual entrepreneur. You need to bring the necessary papers and wait for the tax authorities’ decision.

But when the tax office is late in blocking the account and seizing the property, the entrepreneur needs to go to court and get a decision with the magic phrase “the tax office has lost the right to forcibly collect the arrears.”

If the tax office itself went to sue the individual entrepreneur, it is necessary to make a counterclaim - to recognize the debt as hopeless. If the individual entrepreneur wins, the court decision will also be suitable for writing off the debt - clause 9 of the Supreme Arbitration Court Resolution No. 57.

The collection periods are calculated as follows.

If an individual entrepreneur does not pay taxes on time, the tax office sends a demand for payment. Payment must be made within 8 days, unless a longer period is specified in the request itself. After 8 days, the tax office acts according to Art. 46, 47 Tax Code of the Russian Federation:

⬇ Within two months , makes a decision to collect the debt at the expense of funds - this decision blocks the account.

⬇ If the tax office did not manage to block the account, it goes to court for a writ of execution within six months .

⬇ If the individual entrepreneur does not have money in his accounts, the head of the inspection makes a decision on recovery at the expense of the individual entrepreneur’s property within one year .

⬇ If the manager is late with the decision, the tax authorities go to court within two years and receive a writ of execution for collection at the expense of the individual entrepreneur’s property.

Inspectors usually meet deadlines - this is an important part of their work. But it happens that debts are lost and decisions are made later. For example, in 2021, the Pension Fund transferred the tax affairs of collecting insurance premiums. For technical reasons, some taxpayers did not have their debt reflected in their personal accounts. Then the errors were corrected, but the deadline for solutions had already passed.

Entrepreneurs should check deadlines for decisions. If the tax office is late even by a day, you can go to court with the support of a lawyer.

Forgiven debts and their timing

Tax amnesty for individuals, under Art. 12 436-FZ, provides for the hopelessness and write-off of arrears and debts on penalties that the tax authorities have assessed for a specific arrears. They must appear by the date of the write-off decision for the following taxes of individuals:

• transport;
• property;
• land.

For example, an individual had a transport tax debt of 100 thousand rubles at the beginning of 2015. Accordingly, penalties were accrued at the end of 2021 in the amount of 10 thousand rubles. Total amount of arrears: 110 thousand rubles. This entire amount will be written off under the tax amnesty system.

Amnesty is granted only to those tax debts of individuals that arose before the beginning of 2015. They need to be written off because the expiration of three years from the date of formation of tax arrears does not always mean that the Federal Tax Service will not be able to collect them. The issue of limitation periods in the tax sphere has a number of subtleties, which can be read about in the article “Limitation periods for taxes for individuals and legal entities.”

Pensioners will be exempt from the “six hundred square meters tax”

During the annual press conference, Vladimir Putin announced that it is necessary to exempt old-age pensioners from paying land tax. Today, Russian old-age pensioners are exempt from paying taxes on real estate (including apartments and premises) that they own.

The amendment offers pensioners who will be added to the category of land tax beneficiaries a deduction in kind instead of the cash equivalent (10,000 rubles). The tax base will be reduced by the cadastral value of 600 m2, which are owned by a citizen of the preferential category.

The President of the Russian Federation announced his intention to give a corresponding instruction to the Government of the Russian Federation, which, together with deputies, should decide that preferential categories of citizens who received a deduction in the amount of 10,000 rubles would not pay tax on six hundred square meters.

The preferential category will also include WWII veterans and disabled people who have the right to receive a tax deduction from the tax base, that is, the cadastral price of a land plot in the amount of 10,000 rubles. Military pensioners are also included in the preferential category. Such citizens should contact the Federal Tax Service.

That is, land tax is payable for large plots minus six acres. Let us remind you that the benefit can only be obtained for one plot of land (at the choice of the tax payer).

The new deduction will be applied to taxes for the 2017 period. The deadline for notifying the tax inspectorate is until November 1, and the deadline for paying land tax is until December 1, 2021.

What to do to write off debts

The decision to write off debts was made at the legislative level. To do this, there is no need for an individual entrepreneur to contact the tax office with a corresponding application.

The write-off was initially expected to end during the first months of 2021. However, the number of debts that needed to be processed was too large to be completed within three months, and this procedure is still ongoing. Therefore, some believe that it makes sense to remind the tax office of yourself by writing a short statement in any form, although this is not necessary.

The tax amnesty has been extended to the current year 2021. However, it is unknown whether it will be extended for a subsequent period.

This might also be useful:

• The minimum wage and the cost of living are planned to be equal in 2021
• Increasing K1 for UTII in 2021
• Tax calendar for 2021 for individual entrepreneurs

• New KUDIR for individual entrepreneurs on the simplified tax system in 2021
• Production calendar for 2021
• Increasing the minimum wage in 2021

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The decision to write off and the procedure for applying

Tax amnesty for individuals is the writing off of arrears and debts at the place of residence of these individuals, the place where their property (transport or real estate) is located. This action is based on information about the amount of arrears and debt and is carried out without the participation of the taxpayer. That is, there is no need to contact the Federal Tax Service.

The decision must contain the citizen’s full name, his TIN, the amount of arrears, debts that are written off. However, it is arbitrary in form, and there are no specific deadlines for its adoption. Write-offs occur automatically, without submitting any applications or documents. Debtors receive a decision to write off debts from the Federal Tax Service and transfer it to the bailiffs who conducted the recovery proceedings.

Where to contact

For entrepreneurs and individuals, a special application to the tax office is not required. The tax office will make the decision to write off debts independently based on its own data. At the same time, the inspectorate is not obliged to notify taxpayers. You can find out whether the debt of an entrepreneur or individual is included in the amnesty by checking with the tax authority.

It should be borne in mind that the amnesty applies only to those persons who have accumulated debt as of the specified date; all those entrepreneurs and individuals who paid taxes on time cannot claim their refund from the budget.

Amendment to the Tax Code on “meaningless debt”

Resetting the debt of an individual entrepreneur to zero can actually be considered as income. In this case, corresponding tax obligations must arise. However, the tax amnesty takes into account the situation described here and provides for the forgiveness of this type of tax liability. There is no need to report this income.

Note! Personal income tax for self-employed persons in the Russian Federation was not mandatory for payment during 2021 and 2021. The Duma voted to extend the tax holiday for the current year 2021. However, if these persons had relevant debts that are subject to the amnesty, then they will also be forgiven.

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If the tax office filed to collect debts, but they themselves are subject to review, then they will also be cancelled. Once a decision on this debt has been made, tax officials will need to do the following:

• revoke the document (write-off order) on the basis of which the debt is collected;
• cancel the previously made decision to stop any transactions on the current accounts of individual entrepreneurs;
• inform the bailiff service that a decision has been made to revoke the order for write-off.

As a result, the individual entrepreneur will not only have the corresponding debts forgiven, but will also be given the opportunity to conduct current activities under normal conditions.

Next we will tell you how to write off debts for individual entrepreneurs.

Write-off amount

The liabilities that will be forgiven are not limited in amount. If this type of tax or contributions to social funds is included in the list of those that fall under the procedure under consideration, then the date of occurrence of the obligation, and not its amount, is important when making a decision.

The issue of debt write-off will be considered

For taxes

Write-offs include not only unpaid taxes, but also penalties. If the debt case was heard in court, the case will be dismissed.

Individual entrepreneurs can work using different types of taxation systems. The main tax (if there is one in a particular case) is subject to the law in question.

Included: personal income tax, VAT, land and property taxes.

But there are tax payments to which the amnesty will not apply. Here is their list:

• the tax that the entrepreneur who is engaged in mining is required to pay (MET);
• excise tax payment;
• customs payments.

This may take into account not only taxes, but also some payments for housing and communal services (for example, deductions for major repairs.)

Note! Citizens can thus have their tax arrears for land, property and vehicles written off. Persons who are engaged in private practice will only be able to write off debts on contributions to the Pension Fund.

An entrepreneur is obliged to pay contributions to social funds for himself and those who work for him. And many businessmen are interested in whether individual entrepreneurs’ insurance premium debts will be written off or not. It depends on who the debtor is.

Payments to the Pension Fund and Social Security Fund that were due before January 1, 2021 should be forgiven as a result of an amnesty for individual entrepreneurs. For individuals who are not engaged in business, there will be no such write-off. Those who are engaged in private practice will have this opportunity in relation to pension contributions.

According to information provided by the Federal Tax Service, as of January 1, 2015, citizens' debts on taxes on transport, houses and land amounted to 103 billion rubles (excluding penalties). At the same time, the debt was partially repaid in subsequent periods.

Vladimir Putin, in turn, during the press conference made a proposal to write off 41 billion rubles of debts for citizens and noted that the tax burden for entrepreneurs is a “heavy burden” (he mentioned the tax on major repairs), which means it is not for the state profitable.

The President also expressed confidence that the imperfections of the Russian tax system lead to the formation of tax arrears.

Dmitry Yurkov, a member of the budget committee, explained the concept of “bad debt.” He explained that the following categories can be classified as bad debts of citizens:

• those whom the Federal Tax Service was unable to sue for various reasons;
• those for whom the statute of limitations for paying taxes has already passed.

He cited the transport tax as an example. Thus, the Federal Tax Service has the right to require car owners to pay car tax for the periods from 2015 to 2021, due to the fact that the notification from the tax office must be sent no more than three years ago.

It is noted that debts for transport, land, and property taxes will be written off without the participation of the payers of these taxes. Vladimir Putin personally asked for this, and the head of the Budget Committee Andrei Makarov mentioned it. The President asked to free citizens from debts “in the most de-bureaucratic way possible.”

The amount of debt write-off is not limited to the minimum and maximum threshold, that is, all arrears as of January 1, 2015 and all penalties as of the date the Federal Tax Service makes the decision to write off the debt will be written off. For example, on January 1, 2015, an individual incurred a land tax debt in the amount of 13,000 rubles, and before January 1, 2015, a penalty in the amount of 3,000 rubles was calculated.

Amendments have been made to Article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which regulates the list of income that is subject to tax exemption. Such income includes income that was received in the period from January 1, 2015 to December 1, 2021 and from which income tax was not withheld.

Since the adoption of this amendment, the problem of accumulated tax arrears in a situation where tax officials assessed personal income tax to citizens as a result of writing off debts should be exhausted. We are talking about debts to telephone operators, banks and utility companies.

The head of the Russian Federation noted that such a practice is meaningless. However, the authorities do not want to abandon it completely. Income received by citizens after December 1, 2021 will again be subject to income tax.

At the same time, as noted above, in terms of the “tax amnesty” Law No. 436-FZ does not contain a clause on the non-refundability of amounts paid or collected after December 29, 2021. So, if after this date an individual paid (or was collected from him) a debt for transport, land or “property” tax that arose before 01.01.

2015, then the paid (collected) amount can be returned or offset against the fulfillment of other tax obligations. To do this, you need to contact the tax authority with the appropriate application. As in the case of the “entrepreneurial” amnesty, the decision on write-off is made by the tax authority either at the place of residence of the individual, or at the location of the corresponding object of taxation (car, apartment, land plot).

The decision is made in any form, indicating information about the taxpayer and the debt being written off. At the same time, the legislator also did not establish a deadline for making such a decision by the tax authority. This means that if for some reason the debt needs to be written off quickly, the taxpayer will have to initiate a reconciliation of payments in the manner described above.

How to write off debts for entrepreneurs

The decision to write off debt on insurance premiums in relation to entrepreneurs (both current and former), as well as other self-employed citizens, will be made by the tax authorities at their place of residence. The amounts of arrears, penalties and fines will be determined on the basis of information that was transferred to tax authorities by extra-budgetary funds at the beginning of 2021. There is also a mechanism for requesting information from the Pension Fund of Russia bodies confirming the reasons for the occurrence and existence of debt.

Separately in paragraph 3 of Art. and clause 3 of Art. Law No. 436-FZ stipulates that the decision to write off can be drawn up in any form indicating the full name and INN of the taxpayer, as well as information about the debt being written off. This, in theory, should eliminate local red tape when writing off debt with reference to the lack of a decision form approved by the Federal Tax Service to write off debt.

At the same time, the time frame within which tax authorities must make a decision to write off debt is not established by law. This means that inspections can take such a decision for as long as they like. There are several ways to combat this (if the taxpayer for some reason is interested in writing off the debt as quickly as possible).

Thus, regarding insurance premiums, it is recommended to take the initiative and contact the tax authority with a corresponding application. After all, when it comes to contributions, Law No. 436-FZ does not prohibit this (and regarding tax debt, paragraph 3 of Article No. 436-FZ directly states that write-offs are carried out without the participation of the taxpayer). When submitting an application, the norms of the relevant law “On the procedure for considering applications from citizens of the Russian Federation” dated 02.05.06 No. 59-FZ will be applied, Article 12 of which guarantees consideration of a written application within 30 days. This period can be reduced if you contact the tax authorities with an application for a reconciliation (clause 5.1, clause 1 of Article of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), the period for generating an act for which cannot exceed 15 working days (clause 3.1.2 of the regulations, approved by order Federal Tax Service of Russia dated 09.09.05 No. SAE-3-01/ [email protected] ). In terms of tax debt, the option of conducting a reconciliation remains the only option to speed up the procedure for writing off the debt.

Prepare and submit reports online to the Federal Tax Service, Pension Fund and Social Insurance Fund for free

Is there justice in the amnesty for taxes and contributions?

Individuals without individual entrepreneur status pay insurance premiums when they pay salaries to employees, and also reward contractors. From January 2021, insurance premiums are administered by tax authorities.

Under Part 3 of Article 4 of the Federal Law dated July 3, 2016 No. 243, if the Federal Tax Service cannot collect the “insurance obligations” transferred to it by the funds (social insurance and pension), including penalties and fines that have arisen, plus similar amounts accrued based on the findings of inspections that occurred during reporting periods, then these debts are assessed as bad and written off under Art. 59 NK.

This standard is used unless otherwise established by the new rule, which came into force on January 29, 2018. According to it, the tax office at the place of residence of an individual perceives contributions (arrears, debts on penalties and fines) as hopeless and writes them off if the time allotted for their collection has expired before January 2017. The write-off regime was approved by Order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated May 14, 2018 No. ММВ-7-8/ [email protected]

One of the conditions for write-off is the absence of a court decision regarding debts as of December 29, 2017. In this case, the Federal Tax Service loses the ability to collect debts. Also, this condition does not apply when debts are paid (collected, written off) before December 29, 2017.

The Social Insurance Fund and the Pension Fund are required to send tax authorities information about the amount of arrears, penalties and fines on insurance contributions (insurance obligations) that have accrued as of 01/01/2017. In addition, data is transmitted on the amount of debts, which are no longer possible to collect, since 01.01.

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If before this time it is impossible to claim insurance liabilities from state extra-budgetary funds, since the established period for their collection has expired and there is no corresponding judicial act, including a ruling refusing to restore the deadline for filing an application to the court for debt collection, the funds are recognized as hopeless and the amounts of arrears are written off, according to Resolution of the Board of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation dated 02.12.2018 No. 49p, Order of the Federal Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation dated 02.06.2018 No. 35.

On January 29, 2018, Art. 11 Federal Law No. 436 dated December 28, 2017, according to which hopeless arrears on insurance contributions to Russian state extra-budgetary funds are written off for the reporting period until January 1, 2017. The amount of arrears is calculated according to clause 11 of Art. 14 Federal Law dated July 24, 2009 No. 212.

(Recall that in 2014 the minimum wage was 5,554 rubles, in 2015 - 5,965 rubles, in 2016 - 6,204 rubles.)

In addition to failure to comply with the obligation to provide reporting and calculate the amount of such contributions, in order to write off debts, it is necessary that the obligations have not been repaid or collected (by the Pension Fund or tax authorities). In most cases, these will be people who registered as individual entrepreneurs, but after that they actually stopped engaging in entrepreneurial activities. This also applies to those whose entrepreneurial status has been terminated.

Individual entrepreneurs with debt on insurance premiums for themselves, who provided the necessary tax reporting, cannot receive amnesty.

The decision on hopelessness and write-off of arrears and debts is made by the Federal Tax Service similarly to the above options.

A very large number of individual entrepreneurs have arrears in paying social contributions “for themselves.” At the same time, the amount of debt some have is quite impressive. So, for example, the maximum amount for mandatory pension contributions in 2021 was 154,851.84 rubles. (based on eight times the minimum wage), and for contributions to the FFOMS - 3,796.85 rubles.

According to the amnesty law, arrears of insurance premiums and arrears of penalties and fines in the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, the Social Insurance Fund and the Federal Compulsory Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund for individual entrepreneurs and persons engaged in private practice are considered hopeless for collection. We are talking about debts incurred as of January 1, 2021 and attributed to individual entrepreneurs, lawyers, notaries and other persons engaged in private practice, including those who by this time had already ceased their activities.

Please note: tax authorities will write off arrears of contributions up to January 1, 2021 only for those individual entrepreneurs who did not conduct business and did not submit reports, as a result of which they were assessed contributions in the maximum amount. The basis for writing off debts will be the amount of debt to the tax office or funds. That is, to write off debt on insurance premiums, individual entrepreneurs do not need to collect any documents and contact the Federal Tax Service or extra-budgetary funds.

If an individual entrepreneur regularly paid his contributions until 2021, submitted reports to the funds and the tax office, but, for example, has one payment overdue, then such a payment will not fall under the amnesty. After all, the President said at a press conference that those who were registered as individual entrepreneurs but were never engaged in business were eligible for amnesty. “A man started a business, but something didn’t work out for him, such people should not be punished,” the President urged.

Decision to write off insurance premiums for individual entrepreneurs

The decision to write off fixed insurance premiums “for oneself” is drawn up by the Federal Tax Service at the place of residence (registration) of the entrepreneur in any form and must contain:

• FULL NAME.;
• TIN of the entrepreneur;
• information about arrears and debts on insurance premiums is written off.

In our opinion, if an individual entrepreneur has arrears in insurance premiums, then it makes sense to ask your Federal Tax Service in January 2021 when the decision to write it off will be made.

Let us note that before the adoption of the commented law, it was impossible to write off the debt of individual entrepreneurs on insurance premiums “for themselves” without a court decision.

According to the head of the State Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes, Andrei Makarov, who became one of the authors of the amendments, during the tax amnesty, debts worth about 150 billion rubles will be written off for citizens and individual entrepreneurs.

But is the amnesty on taxes and contributions fair to those people who constantly and regularly pay mandatory payments? To understand this, you need to evaluate the very purpose of the amnesty. The fact is that the overwhelming majority of written-off debts are hopeless, so we are not talking about any losses for the budget. On the contrary, writing off these debts will avoid wasting financial and labor resources.

Of course, it is possible that the amnesty will also include those tax debts that are not hopeless and can be collected. However, the number of such debts is insignificant, since the period of formation of such debts exceeds three years. Their percentage in the total tax debt will not cover the cost of collection.

In our opinion, the amendments are rather aimed at putting information on debts in the Federal Tax Service databases in order. After all, if something that is unrealistic to recover is written off, then there is no need to worry about billions - they are quite conditional.

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“Putin’s” amnesty is one of the most widespread

At a press conference on December 14, 2021, V. Putin said: “Tax debt that arose over the previous many years due to circumstances that are sometimes not even connected with a person, due to the imperfections of our tax system - these debts concern somewhere 42 million people, and the total volume of this debt is 41 billion rubles. I think that people need to be freed from these payments, and this needs to be done in the most de-bureaucratic way possible, without the person contacting the tax authorities.” The President also spoke about the need to write off debt from individual entrepreneurs.

After this statement, the Federal Law “On Amendments to Parts One and Two of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation and Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation” was adopted. .

In this regard, from January 1, 2021, many will be able to count on full repayment of debts on taxes and insurance premiums. But who exactly and under what conditions?

When does the amnesty for individual entrepreneurs come into force?

The write-off of tax debts of individual entrepreneurs will occur throughout 2019. However, it is quite possible that the debts of a particular person will not be written off until the end of the current year. In this case, registration will occur when it is his turn.

Important! The legislation does not provide for strict deadlines for completing the procedure under consideration.

Amnesty will support individual entrepreneurs

Bankruptcy of individual entrepreneurs

If the amnesty did not help you get out of debt, you can write off debts on individual entrepreneurs on the basis of Federal Law No. 127 “On Bankruptcy”. The measure is suitable for persons with active and closed individual entrepreneur status.

Bankruptcy through court

An individual entrepreneur is required to file an application for bankruptcy with the Arbitration Court if the total debt is at least 500,000 rubles with overdue payments of at least 3 months. An entrepreneur also has the right to initiate a procedure, realizing that he will no longer be able to fulfill financial obligations to creditors.

The nature of the debts does not matter. These can be delays on any types of loans and taxes.

Bankruptcy will help:

• get rid of intrusive calls and visits from debt collectors
• write off all existing debts: to financial organizations, creditors on receipts, counterparties, housing and communal services, budgetary and extra-budgetary funds
• stop enforcement proceedings
• remove the seizure from property and accounts.

Extrajudicial bankruptcy of individual entrepreneurs

On September 1, 2021, amendments to out-of-court bankruptcy came into force. If the debt of an individual entrepreneur is 50-500,000 rubles, excluding penalties, fines and interest, the procedure can be completed free of charge and without trial. To do this, you need to submit an application to the MFC, attaching a complete list of creditors and debts.

A prerequisite is that enforcement proceedings against the debtor must be completed due to the lack of property for sale.

The process will last about 6 months. During this time, there will be a moratorium on the imposition of sanctions and the satisfaction of financial obligations to creditors.

Consequences of bankruptcy for individual entrepreneurs

Debts under individual entrepreneurs will be written off in full, with the exception of personal debts (compensation for harm to life and health, alimony), obligations of subsidiary liability, obligations to employees working under a contract.

A few more consequences of the procedure:

1. Inability to hold positions in banking organizations for 10 years from the date of bankruptcy.
2. Prohibition on repeated bankruptcy proceedings and opening an individual entrepreneur for 5 years.
3. Obligation to report bankruptcy when trying to take out a loan within 5 years after the procedure.
4. Restriction on employment in management positions for 3 years from the date of completion of the procedure.

Bankruptcy is a legal way to get rid of debts that you cannot pay with. To begin the debt relief process, contact a lawyer by phone or online chat.