On 30 November President Vladimir Putin signed a nearly 100-page package of amendments to the Tax code, approved by the state Duma earlier this month. Among the amendments was the replacement of a single word, which allows the tax authorities to collect the unpaid taxes of the company with affiliated individuals — for example, owners.
We are talking about the amendments to the eighth and ninth paragraphs of subparagraph 2 of paragraph 2 of article 45 of the Tax code. These paragraphs specify that arrears can be enforced through court with affiliates of the debtor company if she transferred to them the proceeds, cash or other assets. In the new edition of the article the word “organizations” is replaced by “persons”. This effectively means that the tax authorities will now be able to collect the unpaid taxes of the company not only with the associated organizations, but also with affiliated individuals — for example, founders or shareholders, says lawyer BGP Litigation Denis Savin. The provision came into force immediately from the date of publication of the law.
The rate of recovery of tax arrears from affiliated organizations was introduced in 2013 to combat the common practice of bankruptcy of companies that had filed larger claims on the results of tax audits, lawyer says. While the loophole has not been closed, business ceased, and was turned into a new legal entity where the transferred assets, personnel and contract base.
But the old law was that such penalties applied to organizations. In this regard, unscrupulous taxpayers to withdraw assets to individuals, including the status of individual entrepreneurs. Formally, the tax authorities have no grounds to make a claim to such taxpayers and such claims are not met. “Now such limitation for the fiscal filmed,” says Savin.
As part of the package of tax amendments the President also signed amendments to introduce two-year tax holidays for self-employed people who have to individuals personal services. We are talking about nannies and nurses, Tutors and housekeepers. They are encouraged to voluntarily register with the tax authorities and do not pay personal income tax in 2017-2018, after which they will have to decide whether to discontinue working, to become individual entrepreneurs or to pay personal income tax at a rate of 13%.
Among the other signed amendments — extension of coefficient deflator for the unified tax on imputed income (UTII) for 2017 at the current level, which means the constancy of imputed income for small businesses instead of the expected earlier, the Finance Ministry increase; making it possible to pay the taxes of another person (for example, the wife will be able to pay the taxes for my husband), the introduction of double fines for delay in payment of taxes more than 30 days (1/150 Central Bank’s key rate is 1/300) for organizations, while individuals and individual entrepreneurs saved a penalty in amount of 1/300 of the Central Bank rate.
Also, the amendments specify the procedure of bankruptcy of the members of the consolidated group, set out the obligations on you to provide documentation of the presence or absence of the status of a tax resident of the Russian Federation in electronic form, as well as the norm, allowing the regional authorities to postpone until may 1, 2017 the accrual of penalties for failure to pay property tax calculated on the cadastral value of the property. Moscow has done so, allowing citizens to pay property taxes for 2015 on the cadastral value not December 1, 2016, as expected, and five months later.
