Tax amnesty for individuals and individual entrepreneurs in 2022

Tax amnesty in 2022 for individuals

The Tax Code of the Russian Federation and the current legislation do not indicate anywhere that a tax amnesty is an automatic write-off of debts on taxes and contributions for a certain period.
In practice, this commonly used term is even used by the tax office, especially in relation to the tax write-offs ordered by Putin, which continues into 2022. The tax amnesty was introduced by Federal Law No. 436 of December 28, 2017 on the initiative of the President of the Russian Federation. Initially, it was not specifically stated when debts would be written off under the tax amnesty, since this is a multi-stage process that involves identifying the debt and making a decision. The tax authorities managed to write off most of the debts in 2018, but what they did not have time to do will continue to be done in 2022. The norms of Federal Law No. 346 (for example, Articles 11, 12) contain changes that allow you to write off debts:

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

The announced presidential amnesty on taxes 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:

• personal income tax was not deducted for them;
• the tax agent (the person who deducts personal income tax from the income paid by him and transfers it to the budget) informed the Federal Tax Service 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 commencement of Federal Law No. 436 of December 28, 2017 or when the tax amount for free receipts has already been collected.

The law does not indicate the frequency of tax amnesty and on what grounds it is carried out. The decision is made by the State Duma. In 2022, there is no provision for a separate tax amnesty for the property of individuals and charges on it.

Personal income tax: what income can you forget about?

Article 217 “Income not subject to taxation (exempt from taxation)” of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation has been supplemented with clause 72 .
Accordingly, the list of income not subject to personal income tax (exempt from taxation) has been increased. We are talking about income received during a certain period - from January 1, 2015 to December 1, 2022. Thus, non-personal income tax income includes income received over almost the last three years.

But this does not mean that personal income tax will be forgiven for all taxpayers. No. The amnesty covers income upon receipt of which personal income tax was not withheld by the tax agent. But the following income is not exempt:

– in the form of remuneration for the performance of labor or other duties, performance of work, provision of services;

– in the form of dividends and interest;

– in the form of material benefits, determined in accordance with Art. 212 Tax Code of the Russian Federation ;

– in kind, determined in accordance with Art. 211 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation , including gifts received by taxpayers from organizations or individual entrepreneurs;

– in the form of winnings and prizes received in competitions, games and other events.

At the same time, adjustments were made to clauses 6 and 7 of Art. 228 Tax Code of the Russian Federation .

It follows from the new norm that if the taxpayer received income during the period from January 1, 2015 to December 1, 2022, with the exception of the above, the tax agent did not withhold personal income tax from him, but on the basis of clause 5 of Art. 226 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation sent a message about the impossibility of withholding personal income tax to the tax authority and the amount of personal income tax was not collected from this taxpayer, then this amount of personal income tax will actually be written off.

If personal income tax was paid or collected from the taxpayer before the entry into force of Federal Law No. 436-FZ , then the new provisions will not apply to such income.

Since in this case in paragraph 72 of Art. 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, we are not talking about the amount of personal income tax, but about income; both the amount of personal income tax and penalties accrued on arrears will be written off.

Thus, the amnesty included the so-called conditional income - for example, loans written off to the borrower, utilities.

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 Federal Tax Service has accrued for a specific arrears. They must be listed by the date of the decision to recognize them as uncollectible and write off the following taxes for individuals:

• transport;
• property;
• land.

For example, an individual had a transport tax debt of 100,000 rubles at the beginning of 2015. Accordingly, penalties were assessed at the end of 2022 in the amount of 10,000 rubles. The total amount of arrears is 110,000 rubles. According to the system introduced by the tax amnesty under 436-FZ, this entire amount is written off automatically. The amnesty on land taxes for individuals in 2022 works similarly.

Only those tax debts of individuals that arose before the beginning of 2022 will be amnestied. They are 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.

Limitation periods in the tax sphere have a number of subtleties, which are described in the article “Limitation periods for taxes for individuals and legal entities.”

Conditions for applying the transport tax amnesty by individuals

No special conditions are provided; the government apparatus monitors the implementation of legislative norms. The conditions of the amnesty are as follows:

1. no limits are set;
2. write-off is carried out at a time;
3. the changes apply only to citizens of the Russian Federation;
4. no quotas;
5. there are no reasons for refusing to write off arrears;
6. the debt is written off before January 1, 2015, virtually all tax arrears accumulated before 2014;
7. there are no age limits for citizens;
8. traffic police fines are not written off;
9. The provisions of the law apply only to individuals and individual entrepreneurs and legal entities, the innovations do not apply.

The changes are not yet properly regulated. There are a lot of complaints that tax authorities do not want to write off debts. These actions are justified by the lack of appropriate instructions. Such actions are illegal. You should receive an official refusal and file a complaint with the supervisory authorities (OBEP, prosecutor's office). Refusals are also unlawful due to the fact that debts are written off once a quarter - no specific periods have been established for these measures.

At the moment, car owners are required to annually make the current transport tax payment for the year. In fact, if debts were written off before 2015, then all subsequent years must be paid. Traffic police officers will learn about the payment of transport tax. The tax authorities are responsible for checking these payments; if the amount of the debt is less than 500 rubles, then within 3 months from the moment the debt is formed, a notification is sent to the citizen’s address with a request to pay the established amount of money. The fine for non-payment is 20% of the amount of the arrears.

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. If, as a result of shortcomings by the tax authorities, the decision is not made, the taxpayer has the right to submit a write-off application. A unified form for applying for a tax amnesty has not been developed; the application is drawn up in free form.

The decision must contain your full name. citizen, his TIN, the amount of arrears, debts that are written off. It is arbitrary in form, there are no specific deadlines for its adoption and depend on when there was a tax amnesty for individuals before it. 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.

The amnesty for personal taxes introduced under Federal Law No. 436 in 2022 continues to apply in 2022, but for the same periods.

Law No. 436-FZ and the Ministry of Finance on writing off debts of individual entrepreneurs on contributions to the Pension Fund

The tax amnesty for individual entrepreneurs on insurance premiums provides for the following (Article 11 of Law No. 436-FZ):

The decision to write off arrears, penalties and fines is drawn up in any form and must contain the full name, TIN of the entrepreneur, and the amount of contributions to be written off.

Officials of the Ministry of Finance explained additional conditions for recognizing debt on contributions as bad and subject to write-off - the amnesty also applies to individual entrepreneurs’ contributions for themselves, accrued based on the maximum amount (8 minimum wages), for which the entrepreneur did not report (letter dated January 26, 2018 No. 03-11 -11/4394).

You will find the formula for calculating the insurance obligations of individual entrepreneurs in the material “Insurance premiums for the year - what amount to pay.”

Amnesty of debts on insurance premiums

Individuals without individual entrepreneur status pay insurance premiums when they pay salaries to employees and reward contractors. Since January 2022, insurance premiums are administered by tax authorities, and they decide not only which taxes are subject to amnesty, but also what arrears on insurance premiums can be written off.

Under Part 3 of Article 4 of the Federal Law No. 243 dated July 3, 2016, if the Federal Tax Service is unable to 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 rule that came into force on January 29, 2018. It indicates how debts are written off under a tax amnesty - the tax office at the place of residence of an individual perceives contributions (arrears, debts for 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. This norm determines whether court debt falls under the amnesty - no, it is subject to other procedural deadlines and collection procedures. It can no longer be considered hopeless.

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 the time for their collection established by the Tax Code has expired.

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 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 the Resolution 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.

When the Federal Tax Service recognizes tax debts as bad

Sometimes the Federal Tax Service may recognize tax debts as bad and stop collecting them. This can only happen in the cases listed in Art. 59 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. In particular, this is possible in the following situations:

• death of the taxpayer;
• declaring a citizen or individual entrepreneur bankrupt;
• issuance by the court of acts refusing to collect payments due to the expiration of the established deadlines for filing an application;
• return of documents from the FSSP to the claimant due to termination of proceedings due to the debtor’s lack of property and funds, if at least 5 years have passed from the date of formation of the debt.

Another situation where tax debts may be considered hopeless is the debtor’s attempts to declare bankruptcy if the procedure was terminated due to lack of funds to carry it out.

Tax amnesty for individual entrepreneurs

According to Federal Law No. 436, a tax amnesty was also announced for individual entrepreneurs, but for other debts. For individual entrepreneurs, under the amnesty, arrears, penalties and 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 Tax Service determines whether amnesty for legal tax debts and write-offs for individual entrepreneurs is possible. This is similar to write-off for individuals. The Federal Tax Service makes a decision automatically at the place of registration of the entrepreneur, indicating the same data as for individuals, plus a business tax identification number is required.

Use the ConsultantPlus instructions for free to write off taxes for individual entrepreneurs.

TAXES SUBJECT TO AMNESTY AND THE PROCEDURE FOR THEIR WRITTEN OUT

The tax amnesty law instructs the tax inspectorate to write off old debts for individual entrepreneurs in some categories of taxes, but retains the obligation to pay debts in other categories.

Let's consider what taxes will be written off for entrepreneurs for the periods indicated above and what tax debts are not covered by the amnesty.

1. Tax debts associated with business activities are subject to write-off: tax under the simplified taxation regime (STS), unified tax on imputed income (UTI), unified agricultural tax (UST), patents for conducting activities.
2. Tax debts associated with the individual entrepreneur's use of his property for business purposes are subject to write-off - transport tax and property tax.
3. Tax debts related to the receipt of income - personal income tax and VAT - are subject to write-off.
4. Debts on mineral extraction tax (MET), excise taxes, and customs duties are not subject to write-off under the tax amnesty.
5. VAT is not subject to write-off on goods imported by individual entrepreneurs from abroad.
6. The obligation of individual entrepreneurs to pay debts as specified in paragraphs remains. 1–3 taxes for periods after 01/01/2015.
7. Fines and penalties for individual entrepreneurs for failure to submit tax returns for periods before 01/01/2015 are subject to write-off.
8. The obligation of individual entrepreneurs to pay fines and penalties for failure to submit tax returns for the period after 01/01/2015 remains.
9. Debts on insurance fees to extra-budgetary funds (PFR, FSS, TFOMS) formed as of 01/01/2017 are subject to write-off. An important point: since all debts under the social insurance fund and the health insurance fund as of this date were transferred to the Pension Fund, this structure should write off all debts of entrepreneurs for contributions as of this date.
10. Fines and penalties for failure to submit declarations on insurance premiums for periods before 01/01/2017 are subject to write-off.
11. The obligation of individual entrepreneurs to pay fines and penalties for failure to submit declarations on insurance premiums in periods after 01/01/2017 remains.
12. The obligation of individual entrepreneurs to pay debts on insurance fees for the period after 01/01/2017 remains.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

The tax amnesty applies not only to existing entrepreneurs, but also to individuals who previously conducted business activities and as of 01/01/2015 for taxes and as of 01/01/2017 for insurance premiums had debts, fines and penalties.

For similar debts incurred after the specified periods, accrued taxes, fines and penalties are subject to payment by an individual who has ceased business activities.

Let us emphasize once again that the law on tax amnesty does not regulate the deadlines for the tax service for writing off debts , which means that in 2022 it will not be superfluous for individual entrepreneurs to find out whether they have arrears on taxes and fees that are covered by the Federal Tax Service. tax amnesty. If such a debt is discovered, we recommend writing a letter to the Federal Tax Service with a request to write it off as part of a tax amnesty. This action will significantly reduce the risk that this entrepreneur will not have his debts written off for some reason.

Table 2 groups debts on taxes and insurance premiums that are subject to write-off under the tax amnesty and those that are not subject to Federal Law No. 436-FZ.

In addition to the general provisions on the tax amnesty for individual entrepreneurs in 2022, it is important to take into account the individual nuances of its implementation, so as not to end up in a situation where an entrepreneur believes that his debt will be written off in full, and then it turns out that he had to pay part of the debt . In this case, he will continue to be charged penalties and fines for this part of his tax debts and contributions in 2022.

Insurance premiums for individual entrepreneurs

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 for the reporting period until January 1, 2017 are written off. The amount of arrears is calculated according to clause 11 of Art. 14 Federal Law No. 212 dated July 24, 2009.

As a rule, those who are legally engaged in private practice as individual entrepreneurs (lawyers, notaries, etc.) have a liability for penalties and fines, and those who do not have such status at the time of write-off. This refers to insurance premiums that the individual entrepreneur paid for himself to the Pension Fund and did not provide reporting in the declaration, only in the amount determined by the formula:

8 minimum wage (at the beginning of the financial year for which contributions are paid) × 26% × 12.

(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, do not have the right to amnesty it.

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

All of the above rules continue to apply in 2022. It turns out for what periods tax amnesty for individuals is possible for individual entrepreneurs and for what taxes:

• for individuals for debts for the period before 2015 for transport, land and property taxes;
• Individual entrepreneurs (including former ones) have their tax arrears forgiven for taxes related to running a business, for arrears, fines, penalties for the period before 2015 and sanctions for insurance premiums that arose before 2022;
• For individuals without individual entrepreneur status, debts on penalties for social contributions paid to employees are written off until 01/01/2017 in the absence of a court decision.

Tax amnesty, or pay money for forgiveness

The tax amnesty mechanism in Russia was first tested in the early 1990s. On October 27, 1993, Presidential Decree No. 1773 “On conducting a tax amnesty in 1993” was issued. According to this document, legal entities and individuals who declared amounts of previously unpaid taxes before November 30, 1993 and transferred them to the budget were exempt from tax sanctions. If, after the established date, companies’ income hidden from taxation is discovered, the State Tax Service authorities were obliged to collect fines from them in three times the amount. In turn, banks and credit institutions were ordered to provide them with the necessary information about the availability of accounts of enterprises, institutions and organizations within three days after receiving requests from inspectors. If the bank refused or evaded transferring such data to the controllers or provided them with false information, the Central Bank, at the request of the State Tax Service, received the right to revoke the license issued to the credit institution to carry out banking operations. During the amnesty period, only 2,000 individuals applied to the tax authorities. According to the government, it did not bring the desired results.

However, the failure of 1993 did not stop the government from attempting to implement a tax amnesty in the future. Thus, in 1995, the Ministry of Science came up with a proposal to adopt the law “On Tax Amnesty” (the bill was sent for revision to the Ministry of Economy, from where it never returned). In 1997, President Boris Yeltsin reiterated the need for a tax amnesty. Soon the State Tax Service prepared a bill “On the voluntary legalization of income of individuals in 1998,” which was also not implemented. The beginning of 2007 was marked by a new attempt to provide amnesty for persistent defaulters.

Pay your taxes and sleep well

According to the Federal Law of December 30, 2006 No. 269-FZ “On the simplified procedure for declaring income by individuals” (hereinafter referred to as Law No. 269-FZ), for ten months, from March 1, 2007 to January 1, 2008, citizens will have the opportunity to pay taxes on income they received before January 1, 2006, but hidden from taxation.

The essence of the amnesty is that individuals will be able to independently determine the amount of their income received before January 1, 2006, pay a tax on it in the amount of 13 percent without indicating the type and source of funds, and transfer this declaration payment through a credit institution to the account of territorial authorities Federal Treasury. There is no charge for bank transfers. The fact of tax payment to the budget will be confirmed by a settlement document with a note from the bank about its execution. Citizens who have paid taxes on hidden income will be considered to have fulfilled their obligations not only to pay taxes, but also to submit personal income tax and unified social tax returns. It is also noteworthy that an individual who has expressed a desire to participate in the tax amnesty does not directly contact the inspectors. In addition, settlement documents for payment of the declaration payment cannot be requested by the Federal Tax Service. Only in exceptional cases does the bank have the right to provide them at the request of law enforcement agencies, and only for the purpose of verifying the authenticity of the payment document presented by a private individual, and not the information contained in it.

The law does not apply to citizens in respect of whom a conviction for committing a crime under Article 198 of the Criminal Code “Evasion of taxes and (or) fees from an individual” has already entered into force, unless the conviction under this article has been expunged and extinguished. At the same time, private individuals against whom criminal cases have just been initiated can avoid liability even if they pay a declaration payment at the stage of trial. It is likely that many willful defaulters will take advantage of this opportunity that fell out of the blue.

Who needs forgiveness?

Who exactly the declared tax amnesty is aimed at still remains a mystery. Member of the Committee on Budget and Taxes Vyacheslav Novikov believes that “these will be people who are called tax extremes and want to contribute some amount to see if the tax authorities will pay attention to them.” And Sergei Shtogrin , Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes, believes that the amnesty is beneficial only to officials who take bribes for “laundering” money. But it is difficult to agree with such statements, since federal law exempts a private individual from tax and criminal liability only for failure to pay mandatory contributions to the budget. At the same time, you will still have to answer for actions as a result of which a civil servant unlawfully received income (for example, a bribe, illegal participation in business activities). By legalizing such funds, the official actually admits to a crime or, at a minimum, to an official offense. Let us remind you that civil servants are prohibited from engaging in any paid work other than their main job. True, this restriction does not apply to scientific and creative activities. According to the former director of the Department of Tax and Customs Policy of the Ministry of Finance, Mikhail Motorin , this law is designed for a circle of people who did not pay taxes to the budget in full in the mid-1990s. However, we also cannot agree with this position.

Since the tax amnesty applies to income received before January 1, 2006, it is advisable to declare only funds hidden in 2005. This means that private individuals who hid from the state their real income received before 2005 have nothing to fear, since Russian legislation prohibits holding them accountable for non-payment of taxes during this period. The above allows us to conclude that the circle of persons who can take advantage of Law No. 269-FZ is limited to citizens who concealed their income in 2005. Considering that the main large fortunes were earned in the 1990s, it is quite obvious that there is no need to legalize them in 2007.

Most likely, the amnesty will be beneficial to entrepreneurs who use the traditional taxation system, since instead of two taxes - Unified Social Tax and Personal Income Tax - they will need to pay only one, namely a declaration payment at a rate of 13 percent. It will also be of interest to individuals who have come to the attention of tax and law enforcement agencies. After all, by taking advantage of the amnesty, violators will be able to avoid possible claims on their part by simply paying a declaration payment. It is not difficult to imagine such a situation: an entrepreneur, having received a tax audit report, which indicates significant amounts of additionally assessed personal income tax, unified social tax, fines and penalties, and having paid a declaration payment at a rate of 13 percent of the amount independently determined by him, will nullify all the work of the tax authorities.

We should not forget about citizens who have not paid tax on income from the sale of personal property (for example, an apartment, a plot of land, a car). Currently, inspectors and law enforcement officers, having access to databases of other government agencies, are quite effective in identifying such facts and holding individuals accountable.

Experts note that the planned amnesty is addressed not so much to citizens, as it is publicly stated, but to businesses. After all, we are talking about large amounts hidden from taxation that need to be legalized. But where does an individual get such capital? Thus, it becomes obvious that the tax amnesty is primarily aimed at those individuals who, for example, own the assets of any enterprises and, considering that investments in Russia are too risky, withdraw their own income outside the country. Meanwhile, representatives of big business are still unlikely to take advantage of this law, because they can quite easily put their money into legal circulation. Therefore, in general, we can agree with the opinion of State Duma deputy Andrei Makarov that “the version of the tax amnesty that the government proposed guarantees that no one will take advantage of it.”

State budget, salaries and protection

The government considered it impossible to prepare an official forecast of the amounts that will be declared by citizens during the 10 months of the amnesty. However, if we generalize the statements of officials, the state budget does not count on significant additional revenues, since this law pursues objectives of a political rather than economic nature. Thus, there is no point in expecting that a tax amnesty will replenish the budget.

There is no reason to believe that the amnesty will stimulate the return of capital to Russia. International experience shows that tax amnesties do not bring radical positive results, and in the future only contribute to even greater capital outflow.

It is difficult to support the position of the head of the Accounts Chamber, Sergei Stepashin , who believes that a tax amnesty will help solve the problem of paying salaries “in envelopes.” There is no need for hired employees to declare amounts received, since, according to the provisions of the Tax Code, the obligation to calculate, withhold and transfer personal income tax to the budget is assigned to the employer, as a tax agent, therefore, it is the employer who is responsible for its failure.

We should not forget about the negative consequences of the tax amnesty, which, by encouraging unscrupulous taxpayers, puts them in a privileged position relative to law-abiding citizens. Thus, according to Sergei Shtogrin, it is wrong to forgive debts to people who at one time “stole” income from taxation. World practice shows that such measures are useless and even harmful from the point of view of educating conscientious taxpayers. In turn, Andrei Makarov said that the government, studying international experience, chose the most ineffective option of tax amnesty.

Indeed, the adopted federal law affects only tax legal relations and does not concern currency, customs and other areas of legislation, for violation of which, for the purpose of “laundering” income, a private person can be held accountable. A number of law enforcement officials believe that the information received about the income disclosed by taxpayers will be used by them in operational work, including when deciding on the issue of criminal prosecution of violators. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin named citizens' trust in the law enforcement system and confidence that disclosure of income will not cause further persecution as one of the conditions necessary for a successful tax amnesty. When carrying out an amnesty, the protection of information received by inspectors must be ensured. At present, there are facts of information leakage from the databases of controllers, indicating serious problems in the field of protecting tax secrets, which also does not contribute to the desire of citizens to disclose their income.

The main goals of the tax amnesty are the return of capital, legalization of income, and stimulation of the conscientious performance of the taxpayer’s duties. The proposed option does not contribute to achieving these goals. Moreover, a tax amnesty cannot be carried out on its own; it must be an integral part of a unified state policy, both in the field of taxation and in the field of currency, customs and criminal regulation. At the same time, promoting the legalization of income should be accompanied by informing citizens of the state’s tough position towards those who do not want to play by the rules, and the adoption of appropriate laws. For example, this may be facilitated by the emergence of control over expenses, strengthening of law enforcement activities in the tax sphere, etc. Weak information support for the 2007 tax amnesty, which actually only specialists of a narrow profile know about, is also cause for concern.

Fashionable Western amnesty...

In international practice, tax amnesties are a fairly common phenomenon both at the national and local levels. In Europe, “indulgence” was provided to taxpayers, for example, in France, Belgium, Italy, Ireland and other countries. But not in all countries tax amnesties brought the desired results. In particular, amnesties implemented in the 1980s in Argentina and France failed.

The most successful is the experience of Ireland. Thus, the tax amnesty carried out in 1988 made it possible to collect additional funds for the budget, amounting to about 2.5 percent of the state’s GDP. The amnesty itself was accompanied by serious information support; lists of persistent defaulters were published in the press.

The Italian amnesty of 2002 made it possible to return about 30 billion euros to the country's economy under the guarantee that no interest would be taken in the origin of the declared capital. The tax rate for legalized income was only 2.5 percent or could be replaced by the purchase of government bonds in an amount equal to 12 percent of the hidden capital. By the way, in Italy, tax amnesties were carried out so often that in 2004 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development concluded that it could undermine the country's tax system and recommended that the Italian government abandon this practice.

The experience of India is also interesting, where tax amnesties are held once every ten years. The most successful was the 1997 amnesty, as a result of which, instead of the planned budget revenue of $1 billion, more than $2.5 billion was collected. At the same time, as analysts note, this success was primarily due to a reduction in the tax rate for declared income, as well as a large-scale advertising campaign that cost the Indian government $7 million.

From 1982 to 1997, a total of more than 80 tax amnesties were announced in various US states, resulting in approximately $2 billion in revenue. However, according to American researchers, in the long term, an amnesty reduces the integrity of taxpayers and leads to a decrease in tax revenues. In this regard, in 1998, the United States abandoned the project of holding an amnesty throughout the country.

In Spain in the 1980s, citizens did not have to pay taxes on hidden income at all. The government proposed investing the declared amounts in a special state fund at a small interest rate for five years, after which the money was returned to citizens with dividends accrued on them.

The last European tax amnesty was held in Germany in 2004–2005. To determine taxable income, only 60 percent of the declared amount was taken into account. However, instead of the expected 5 billion euros, only 1.5 billion euros were collected into the budget. The reason for the failure is a weak information campaign, which led to the fact that many never learned about the opportunity provided by the state.

...came to the CIS

In addition to Russia, amnesty was also declared in Kazakhstan and Georgia in the post-Soviet space. In 2001, in Kazakhstan, legalized income was not subject to taxation at all, and persons who declared it were exempt from prosecution by the state. In order to demonstrate the seriousness of its intentions, the Kazakhstan Tax Service destroyed the declarations of individuals for the period from 1995 to 2000. Since 2002, citizens have built relations with the state from scratch. Inspectors were strictly forbidden to find out the origin of property and savings of citizens.

In 2005, a tax amnesty started in Georgia, where every taxpayer could declare any amount and property with impunity, paying a tax of 1 percent to the budget. At the end of November 2005, instead of the expected 4 million dollars, the Georgian budget received only 35 thousand dollars from the amnesty. At the same time, only eight conscientious businessmen took part in the event.

Who benefits from tax amnesty?

The limitation period provided for by the Tax Code is three years. After this period, the individual cannot be held liable for taxation. In particular, controllers can check only three calendar years of activity of the taxpayer (Article 87 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Thus, in 2007, fiscal officials can inspect the correctness of calculation and payment of taxes only for 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Prototype

When developing Law No. 269-FZ, the Belgian law of December 31, 2003 “On a one-time release declaration” was taken as a basis. In accordance with this document, the amnesty did not apply to income of dubious origin, as well as to persons against whom an investigation procedure had already been initiated. Belgian legislators proposed two ways to tax declared income - 9 percent on declared capital or 6 percent on income invested in the country's economy.

Dmitry Cherepkov, lawyer at the Moscow Bar Association “Knyazev and Partners”

Writing off bad debts

The draft order developed by the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation “On approval of the procedure for writing off arrears and debts on penalties, fines and interest recognized as uncollectible” lists cases in which tax debt is recognized as uncollectible:

• if an individual or individual entrepreneur is declared bankrupt;
• if, by a court decision, the period for collecting the arrears is declared to have expired;
• if it is established that taxes have been transferred from the payer’s account, but for some reason they 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.

Ways to write off tax debt

In what cases, under current legislation, can debtors count on write-off? There are two main ways to free an individual (i.e., an ordinary citizen) from tax debt - declaring the debt bad and bankruptcy.

The first option provides that the tax can be written off subject to the expiration of the statute of limitations or if the tax inspectorate did not issue a demand for payment within the established time frame. Also, such debts are written off on the basis of special laws. The second option is applicable in a situation where a citizen cannot fulfill his financial obligations, as a result of which he is declared bankrupt in the prescribed manner.

NUANCES OF TAX AMNESTY FOR INDIVIDUAL ENTREPRENEURS

If, for example, as of January 1, 2019, an entrepreneur voluntarily paid off arrears, penalties and fines on taxes and contributions for periods subject to tax amnesty, then the law does not provide for a refund of funds from the Federal Tax Service.

This puts law-abiding taxpayers at a disadvantage compared to those who have not repaid their debt by 2019. This conclusion can be drawn from the letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated April 25, 2018 No. 03-15-05/28136. It directly states that the provisions of Federal Law No. 436-FZ do not apply to paid, collected and written off arrears, penalties and fines related to the amnestied periods.

As part of the tax amnesty, entrepreneurs must write off even those debts for which documents have already been sent to the courts, banks, and bailiffs. In accordance with the letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated April 16, 2018 No. KCH-4-8/7146, inspectors must take the following actions in relation to arrears , penalties and fines subject to tax amnesty :

• revoke the order to write off money from the entrepreneur’s commercial account;
• cancel the decision to block the entrepreneur’s bank account;
• withdraw the statement of claim from the courts;
• send the bailiffs information about the cancellation of debt collection.

The following nuance : only those amounts of penalties and fines that were accrued for arrears of taxes and contributions on the date of the amnesty are subject to the tax amnesty. The amounts of penalties and fines accrued for this arrears after the amnesty date must be repaid in 2022.

EXAMPLE 1

As of January 1, 2019, the entrepreneur has an arrears of transport tax in the amount of 20,000 rubles. At the same time, the debt is 10,000 rubles. formed on 01/01/2015. As of 01/01/2019, penalties in the amount of 2,000 rubles were accrued for this arrears, of which 700 rubles were accrued as of 01/01/2015.

As part of the tax amnesty, the entrepreneur will have his debt written off in the amount of 10,000 rubles. and penalties in the amount of 700 rubles.

The remaining amount of tax debt is 10,000 rubles. payable. Also subject to payment is part of the tax penalty, which relates to the period after 01/01/2015, and part of the penalty relating to the written-off debt of 10,000 rubles, but accrued in the period from 01/01/2015 to 01/01/2019. That is, in 2022, the entrepreneur must fully pay off penalties in the amount of 1,300 rubles. (2000 – 700).

The maximum amount of debt on insurance premiums subject to write-off under the tax amnesty is calculated using the formula:

Debt to be written off = 8 × minimum wage × Insurance premium rate × Period of business activity in months before 01/01/2017 + Amount of penalties accrued for the period of late payment of contributions.

For the accuracy of the calculation, it is necessary to take into account that the minimum wage (minimum wage) by law before 01/01/2017 was different: in 2014 - 5554 rubles. per month, in 2015 - 5965 rubles. per month, and in 2016 - 6204 rubles. per month.

EXAMPLE 2

The entrepreneur has an outstanding debt on insurance premiums as of 01/01/2017 in the amount of 378,304 rubles . Of these, 7418 rubles. amounts to a penalty for arrears.

For the period from 01/01/2017 to 01/01/2019, another 4,500 rubles were accrued for this debt. peny. At the same time, the entrepreneur stopped paying insurance premiums from 07/01/2014 and ceased commercial activities from 09/01/2016.

After 01/01/2017, the entrepreneur voluntarily paid off the arrears of insurance premiums in the amount of 50,000 rubles. for periods before 01/01/2017.

Let's calculate the amount of arrears on insurance premiums that can be written off from an entrepreneur as part of a tax amnesty (Table 3).

Tax debts

Tax debts of individual entrepreneurs that can be written off are divided into two groups:

• accrued on income from business activities within the chosen tax regime;
• accrued to an entrepreneur as an individual who has a corresponding object of taxation.

The first group includes the following taxes:

• single on a simplified system (USN);
• single imputed income (UTII);
• unified agricultural system (UAS);
• Personal income tax and VAT (except import) on OSNO.
• patent cost (PSN);

The mineral extraction tax, excise taxes and import VAT when moving goods across the border of the Russian Federation were not included in the amnesty.

The second group includes taxes that individual entrepreneurs pay as an individual:

• transport;
• tax;
• land.

An important condition is that the arrears that accrued on January 1, 2015 are written off, i.e. for taxes for 2014 and earlier years. In relation to these debts, the Federal Tax Service should have carried out timely collection work. And if the tax debt has not yet been paid, then apparently it has already been recognized as hopeless.