Transport tax amnesty: freed from debt, but not everyone

Tax amnesty - understanding the concept

In a broad sense, such an amnesty means any relief that allows taxpayers to pay taxes in a smaller amount than previously established, cancels all existing fines and debts, and also temporarily or permanently cancels certain tax fees. True, not all of these measures can be called amnesties in the full sense of the word - for example, the “forgiveness” of some debts with the requirement to pay them anyway, but without the accumulated fine for late payments (as was the case several years ago with some types of taxes) on In essence, it is a rather minor relaxation, and applies to a relatively small number of citizens (as a percentage).

The current amnesty, which Putin announced at his annual conference on December 14, 2021, is an event of a completely different kind.

It actually allows Russian citizens who own vehicles not to pay transport tax at all, and also forgives all already accumulated debts and fines for this tax (as well as for a number of other mandatory taxes).

"Senseless" debt

Another amendment expands the list of income exempt from taxation (Article 217 of the Tax Code). It is proposed to include income received from January 1, 2015 to December 1, 2017, upon receipt of which tax was not withheld by the tax agent. With the adoption of this amendment, the problem of accumulated tax debts will disappear, when tax authorities assessed personal income tax to citizens as a result of writing off their debts to banks, telephone operators, utility organizations, etc. According to Vladimir Putin, this is a “senseless” practice. But the authorities will not refuse it: such “conditional income” received after December 1, 2017 will again be subject to personal income tax.

By law, if a tax agent has not withheld personal income tax, he must notify his territorial tax office about this. “Most often this happens when a citizen receives some economic benefit, but the money is not physically transferred to him,” explains Uspensky. “For example, the company forgave a loan to a dismissed employee, or the bank decided to meet the client halfway and wrote off his debt.” In this case, the individual himself must visit the tax office, submit a declaration and ultimately pay off the budget. But in practice, “not all citizens show increased social responsibility, and it is not profitable for inspectors to waste time collecting small amounts,” says Uspensky.

There are other situations when a tax agent, as a general rule, must, but cannot, withhold personal income tax: for example, if a company pays wages or dividends in kind or if an organization holds a so-called incentive lottery with prizes. But the amendments stipulate that income in the form of dividends and interest, gifts from organizations, winnings and prizes are not exempt from personal income tax. .

Who does this amnesty apply to?

After a brief consideration of the meaning of the amnesty and the principles of its operation, the next question naturally arises - who concerns and how to take advantage of this very amnesty? As mentioned above, its general effect applies to absolutely all individuals who are citizens of Russia, as well as to all individual entrepreneurs.

As for the transport tax amnesty specifically, as you might guess, it applies only to those citizens who own a car (and these persons must be the owners who pay all the necessary motor transport fees and taxes).

It is extremely important to note the fact that its direct action is absolutely not limited by anything, it does not depend on:

1. is a motorist who will be exempt from motor vehicle tax
2. unemployed, working or retired; - on the amount of income of the person with tax debts (as well as the income of his family members);
3. place and region of residence of this payer;
4. 

the time during which he owns the vehicle;
5. engine power and other similar vehicle characteristics;
6. reasons why taxes were not paid on time (it could be forced, for example, due to a lack of funds or an emergency, or simply be caused by the person’s reluctance to pay taxes).

In all these cases, the debt will still be written off. In addition, perhaps the most important point is the fact that absolutely any amount credited to the debtor as of January 1, 2015 will be written off.

Let's give an example: a certain individual has a debt on motor vehicle tax, which by the beginning of 2015 amounted to 11,000 rubles. Also, in the period that followed (until 2018), due to non-payment of tax, this person was assessed additional penalties in the amount of about 4,000 rubles. In total, the total amount to be paid became 15,000 rubles. As a result of the tax amnesty, this entire amount will be completely written off from the debtor’s account (as well as any other amount - there are no restrictions on its size in the amendments that Putin’s decree introduced to tax legislation). 



Now let's look at the write-off procedure itself - what will the car owner need to provide to the tax office at his place of residence in order for the debt write-off described above to occur?

Nothing at all, really. You do not need to bring any certificates, declarations or other papers to the tax office, nor do you need to pay any duties or government fees. The tax authorities themselves will deal with the write-off of accumulated debts, and no participation of the debtors themselves will be required. Moreover, part of the debts (including transport tax) will most likely be written off “automatically” - they will simply be deleted from the electronic system of the tax service (the taxpayer will be able to check the fact that this write-off has occurred by simply logging into his personal account on the tax service website - however, for this you need to be registered there).

It is also worth noting the important point that, according to the amendments that have come into force, all taxes, fines and penalties are written off unilaterally by the tax service itself, without the participation of the debtor citizen, but at the same time the service notifies about the fact that the debt has been successfully removed this very citizen is not obliged. In fact, this moment should not cause serious inconvenience to individuals - after all, the most important thing is that the debt will be deleted for everyone at once, without any exceptions, and, therefore, there is absolutely no reason for concern here. 



As for those car enthusiasts who still want to personally verify that their debt is gone, we can recommend two options for solving this problem.

• The first of them is to go to the tax service website and check the status of the debt in your personal account (which has already been mentioned above, however, it is worth repeating - for this you need to be registered in the system).
• The second way is to come in person to the nearest tax office and ask there for information about the status of the debt. As a rule, this procedure is quite fast, and the total time that will have to be spent when checking the account status using this method depends directly on the presence of queues.

Transport tax 2014

• Taxpayers
• Object of taxation
• The tax base
• Tax and reporting periods
• Tax rate
• Procedure for calculating tax and advance payments
• Procedure and deadlines for tax payment
• Procedure and deadlines for reporting

The general principles for paying transport tax are established by Chapter 28 of the Tax Code. In each region, transport tax is enforced by regional law. If there is no such law in the region, then there is no need to pay tax.

Taxpayers

Transport tax is paid by companies (Russian and foreign) and entrepreneurs with registered vehicles listed in Article 358 of the Tax Code.

Difficulties in determining the taxpayer may arise if a vehicle registered in the name of an individual is transferred to another person on the basis of a power of attorney. In this case, two situations may arise:

• if the power of attorney was issued before July 30, 2002 (the date of official publication of Chapter 28 “Transport Tax”), then the tax will be paid by the person indicated in the power of attorney;
• if the power of attorney was issued after July 30, 2002, then the tax will be paid by the previous owner of the vehicle.

Moreover, in the first case, citizens to whom vehicles are registered must notify the tax office at the place of their registration about the transfer of the specified vehicles by proxy.
Example:
On July 1, 2002, an entrepreneur bought a Gazelle minibus and a Volga car. On July 15, 2002, he transferred the Gazelle by proxy to the company and reported this to the tax office. Therefore, the transport tax for the Gazelle is paid by the company. On August 30, 2005, the entrepreneur transferred by power of attorney to the same. Since the transfer of the car by proxy occurred after July 30, 2002, the transport tax for the Volga must be paid by the entrepreneur.

Object of taxation

Vehicles that are taxed (Article 358 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation) can be divided into three groups:

1. motor transport (cars, motorcycles, scooters, buses and other self-propelled machines and mechanisms on pneumatic and caterpillar tracks);
2. water (motor ships, yachts, sailing ships, boats, motor boats, towed vessels, etc.);
3. air (planes, helicopters, etc.).

All these vehicles must be registered in accordance with the established procedure.

The following are not subject to taxation:

• rowing boats and motor boats with an engine of no more than 5 horsepower;
• passenger cars specially equipped for use by disabled people;
• passenger cars with an engine power of up to 100 horsepower, received through social security authorities;
• fishing sea and river vessels;
• passenger and cargo sea, river and aircraft owned by organizations whose main activity is passenger and cargo transportation;
• tractors, self-propelled combines, special vehicles registered to agricultural producers;
• vehicles belonging to federal executive authorities, where military and equivalent service is provided;
• wanted vehicles;
• airplanes and helicopters of air ambulance and medical services;
• vessels according to the Russian International Register.

The tax base

For vehicles with an engine (for example, a car, an airplane, a boat), the tax base will be the engine's nameplate power in horsepower.

The tax base for non-self-propelled (towed) vessels is their capacity in tons. For other water and air transport, the tax base is determined based on the number of vehicles.

Tax and reporting periods

The tax period for transport tax is one year. Reporting periods for advance payments for firms are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd quarters. However, regional authorities have the right not to introduce reporting periods.

Tax rate

The basic rates for transport tax are established in Article 361 of the Tax Code. Regional authorities can reduce or increase transport tax rates by no more than ten times. In addition, regional authorities can set tax rates taking into account the number of years that have passed since the year of manufacture of vehicles and (or) their environmental class. If tax rates in the regions are not determined, then the rates established by the Tax Code are applied:

Procedure for calculating tax and advance payments

Transport tax is calculated separately for each vehicle. Organizations independently determine the amount of transport tax. Individuals do not need to calculate tax: the inspectorate will send them a request to pay transport tax. To calculate the amount of transport tax that needs to be paid to the budget, multiply the tax base by the tax rate. If you own the vehicle for less than a year (for example, a few months), then the tax is paid only for those months. To calculate transport tax for several months, you need to determine the coefficient:

The tax amount is calculated as follows: the tax base is multiplied by the tax rate and by the correction factor. In this case, the month of registration of the vehicle, as well as the month of deregistration of the vehicle, are taken as a full month. In case of registration and deregistration of a vehicle within one calendar month, this month is taken as one full month.

At the end of each reporting period (Q1, Q2 and Q3), firms pay advance payments for transport tax. They are calculated as follows: the total amount of transport tax (the product of the tax base and the tax rate, taking into account the correction factor) is divided by 4.

And at the end of the tax period (year), the difference between the annual tax amount and the amount of advance payments transferred during the year is transferred to the budget.

Regional authorities may exempt certain categories of firms from paying advance payments for transport tax. In this case, Osvobozhdeniye residents will have to remit tax only at the end of the year.

Procedure and deadlines for tax payment

Tax and advance payment must be paid at the place of registration of the vehicle.

The deadlines for payment of transport tax and advance payments for it are set by regional authorities. At the same time, the tax payment deadline for organizations cannot be set earlier than February 1 of the year following the expired tax period (clause 3 of Article 363.1 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Procedure and deadlines for reporting

Only companies are required to submit transport tax returns. Individuals do not need to do this - they pay tax based on the notifications that the tax office sends them. The notification form was approved by order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated October 5, 2010 No. ММВ-7-11/479.

The transport tax declaration form was approved by order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated February 20, 2012 No. ММВ-7-11/99. The same order approved the format for submitting the declaration in electronic form.

note

Since 2011, organizations do not have to submit interim reports on transport tax to the tax office - quarterly calculations for advance payments. However, firms remain obligated to make advance payments throughout the year (if provided for by regional laws).

The deadline for submitting the declaration is no later than February 1 of the year following the expired tax period.



What is the overall scale of the current tax amnesty and what segments of the population will it affect?

If we talk about a tax amnesty specifically in terms of car tax, then it will affect a fairly high percentage of Russian motorists, since at the moment quite a few of them have some kind of debt on this tax. In general, this procedure will affect almost the entire population - it is expected that the total amount of taxes, fees, fines and penalties that will be written off during this amnesty can exceed 100 billion rubles (and according to some preliminary estimates - even more than 150 billion) . Of this amount, more than 40 billion are so-called “bad debts,” which the state has virtually no ability to collect from debtors. As for the scope of this campaign, in total more than 42,000,000 people will be included in the amnesty, as well as about 1,500,000 individual entrepreneurs. Thus, such a tax amnesty will be, perhaps, the largest in the entire history of modern Russia.

Deduction of six hundred

Finally, another amendment provides for the exemption of pensioners, disabled people and war veterans from paying taxes on small land plots. Currently, old-age pensioners are exempt from taxes on apartments and other buildings and premises in their property, but not from land taxes. And for preferential categories for land tax (disabled people, veterans, etc.), which pensioners are not included in, a cash deduction of 10 thousand rubles is provided. from the tax base - the cadastral value of the land plot.

As follows from the text of the amendment approved by the committee, pensioners will be included in the preferential category for land tax, and the cash tax deduction (10 thousand rubles) will be replaced with a deduction in kind: the tax base will be reduced by the cadastral value of 600 square meters. m owned by the beneficiary. Thus, for larger plots, the need to pay tax will remain, but only for the amount of land that remains after deducting six acres.

This benefit can be applied to only one plot of land at the taxpayer’s choice, the document notes. The benefit applies to all pensioners established by law, including military personnel, Makarov clarified. The new deduction will apply to the 2021 tax, which by law must be paid by December 1, 2021.