What functions does a letter perform?
Letter of deferred payment sent to the supplier:
- It is an acknowledgment of the fact that there is a debt owed to him.
- Confirms that the buyer has no intention to hide or try to dispute the existence of an unpaid delivery of products.
- Confirms the amount of the amount to be transferred to the supplier.
- Confirms the fact of concluding an agreement between organizations or individual entrepreneurs.
How to convince a supplier to defer payment
Businessmen do not often agree to provide a deferment. They have reasons for this. In the case of delivery of goods with deferred payment, the supplier faces certain risks. As a rule, accounts receivable are monitored by sales managers seeking to increase product sales. Therefore, it is important for a manager to maintain good relationships with customers. During a delay in payment, the manager has a difficult time when payment is deferred to the supplier if the debtor is in no hurry to fulfill its obligations.
But everything can be resolved. For the Russian market, the story of deferred payment is a common thing. Moreover, this practice is now being applied in other industries. Previously, loans were issued only for consumer goods. In case of delay, both parties have their own benefit. The buyer can pay for the purchased products not at the time of purchase, but after several months. The supplier receives loyal buyers of its goods. Of course, not everything and does not always go smoothly. But you shouldn’t despair; if payment to the supplier is delayed, the nuances that arise can easily be corrected.
This problem can be resolved more quickly if a third party is involved, which will close the cash gap and take on the issue of non-payment of debt. For example, a factoring company can do this. This organization provides services for financing the supply of goods.
The factoring firm may even purchase accounts receivable to ensure payment arrives. That is, in essence, it becomes an accompanying company that regulates the payment of debt when payment is deferred to the supplier. This organization will accompany payment for product supplies, monitoring deadlines until the receivables are repaid.
In this case, factoring is provided by “receivables”, on which the range of services provided, as well as the return of funds to the factoring company, depends. For the supplier, this cooperation is doubly beneficial. He receives financing and a guarantee that he will be provided with funds in cash during the deferred payment period. The supplier will also be protected from losses.
Factoring cooperation allows you to build relationships between the buyer and supplier in such a way that deferred payment will be beneficial for both business partners. But before cooperation begins, the factoring organization and the client must discuss the expected opportunities.
Let's look at an example. The client has five debtors who receive goods every month with a deferred payment to the supplier in the amount of 30 million rubles. An independent factoring company can take over these debtors, reimbursing the client and closing the cash gap. With the help of factoring services, you can successfully finance receivable deliveries and reduce the risks of non-payment for goods received.
How to start the factoring process? First, you need to sign an agreement with a factoring company. Then the client transfers supplies and information about debtors, and the limit and volume of required services are determined. Before this, the factoring organization collects all information about debtors and, based on it, a limit is set for each organization.
The limit is the actual amount of risk that exists for the factoring company. This company undertakes to compensate for all losses by purchasing receivables from the client. The factoring organization pays him money for shipping the goods and issues a guarantee, guaranteeing payment for the delivered products during the deferred payment to the supplier.
This issue is not always resolved only with the help of a limit. It is necessary that the debtor also signs an agreement to participate in factoring. He must accept the terms and conditions specified in the notice of transfer of payments to the factoring company's account. The debtor must also confirm his consent to carry out activities to support receivables. If there are any delays, they will call him and correctly remind him that payment is required.
This way, you will have an agreement to defer payment to the supplier, signed by all parties. Debtors will be verified, all required notices will be signed, and limits will be set. Now the supplier can safely ship his products with deferred payment; he does not have to worry that he will not receive payment after sending the goods. The factoring company will have all the information.
Of course, there are many different nuances in this issue, but in general the picture looks exactly like this. The activities of a factoring company can be schematically represented as follows:
- Controls payment for delivery of goods.
- Checks the business reputation of the company and its credit history.
- Helps to competently build a company policy, both limit and tariff.
- Assumes all possible risks of non-payment.
Features of a letter about deferred payment
A letter on deferred payment is drawn up in order to solve problems that have arisen when one economic entity is unable to pay off its obligations to the counterparty. In the text of the letter, the subject who has unpaid deliveries of goods notifies his partner that within a certain time frame he will repay the existing obligations to him.
The legislation does not establish a standard form for this document. We can only give recommendations on the structure of the letter and the main points that must be indicated in it to give the document legal force. Each organization can independently develop its own standard letter form for use. It is advisable to draw up the document on company letterhead.
The letter can be sent either on the debtor’s own initiative or in response to a received claim from the supplier. The text must indicate whether the debtor is ready to repay the obligations and accrued interest within the time frame specified by the business partner. If for some reason this is not possible, you must indicate a request to postpone the deadline for transferring funds.
What points should a letter about deferred payment contain:
- Name of the sending organization (or individual entrepreneur).
- Sender's details (TIN, KPP, legal address, etc.).
- Name of the company (full name of the entrepreneur) to which the letter is sent.
- The essence of the guarantee provided for payment of existing debt.
- Details of the contract on the basis of which the products were delivered.
- Statement of the fact that there is a debt to pay (amounts must be indicated in words). If the counterparty demands to pay a penalty, indicate your agreement or disagreement with this.
- Expected maturity of liabilities.
The letter on deferred payment must contain the signature of the head of the legal entity, preferably the signature of the chief accountant. The stamp is placed if available.
Related article: Sales with deferred payment Read more
Compilation rules
One of the parties notifies the other in writing about the financial difficulties that have arisen and the impossibility of fulfilling the monetary terms of the transaction, acknowledging the existence of an agreement, the fact of debt and the amount. Thus, these details must be present in the form, otherwise the other party will not take the letter requesting a deferment of payment seriously and will ignore it.
The form is developed by each company independently, taking into account these mandatory blocks of information.
A well-written letter to a counterparty requesting a deferred payment must contain specific details to identify the partner and the agreement:
- names of organizations;
- position and surname, first name, patronymic of management persons;
- sender's details (TIN, legal address) (if an official form is used, they should not be duplicated);
- contract details (number, date, subject);
- data of the agreement on the fulfillment of the terms by the second party;
- amount of debt.
These data serve as identifying features; without them, it is difficult for the counterparty to determine the sender and the essence of the request.
Structure of a letter about deferred payment
- In the upper right corner indicate information about the sender and recipient, the date of compilation, and the outgoing number.
- Introductory part. Here you should state the reason for the appeal (usually they start with the phrases “Due to the impossibility of fulfilling the obligation on time due to ...”, etc.), the purpose of the appeal (“To avoid conflict”, “To resolve the issue”, etc.).
- Main part. Here the sender makes a request for a deferred payment. You can use the phrases “We ask you”, “We make a request”. You must address your business partner in a respectful manner. If the letter contains several requests to the counterparty, they are indicated in separate paragraphs or paragraphs. If the sender expects to receive a response within a certain period of time, he should correctly indicate this in the text of the document.
- The final part must contain the signature of the head of the organization with a transcript.
Recommendations for writing a letter about deferred payment:
- The writing style is businesslike.
- The request or demand must be stated very clearly and understandably. Slang expressions are not allowed.
- Sentences should be simple and understandable, without complex participial and adverbial phrases. Vague phrases and lengthy discussions are unacceptable.
- When indicating the expected repayment periods of obligations, it is necessary to realistically assess your financial capabilities. It is better to indicate this period with a reserve.
- It is recommended to inform the supplier about future plans for cooperation. Thanks to this, he will not have the desire to go to court for debt compensation.
Letter of request for payment of debt
Debts very often arise in interactions between companies. If the organization is committed to further cooperation with the counterparty who has incurred a debt, a letter of request is sent.
To the Chief Ivanov I.I. From the Chief Sidorov P.P.
Dear Ivan Ivanovich, we ask you to repay the debt to our company in the amount of 200,000 rubles. All this time, we continued to cooperate with you, hoping to continue our business relationship. However, we are now forced to suspend the provision of services due to lack of payments.
The amount of your debt is 200,000 rubles. Please pay by March 1, 2022. If the debt is not repaid, we will be forced to resolve the issue in court.
Best regards, Petr Petrovich.
Explanation:
The letter must include the following points:
- The exact amount of debt.
- The date by which the debt must be paid.
- Measures that the company will take if payments are not received.
The text may mention long-term successful cooperation with the organization. This should be a request, not a demand. The requirement is drawn up using a different template.
Deferred payment agreement
An additional agreement on deferred payment is a type of agreement between counterparties, which establishes the postponement of debt repayment to a later date than was stipulated in the previously drawn up agreement. The need to draw up such a document in the event of a delay may be expressly provided for by the terms of the main agreement. Since deferred payment, from a legal point of view, is one of the types of loans, the same legal norms apply to it.
The structure of a deferred payment agreement is similar to a contract. The introductory part indicates the names of the organizations that entered into the agreement, as well as the number of the main agreement. Then the conditions for changing the payment terms are listed, which the parties undertake to fulfill. The agreement is drawn up in two copies, one for each party.
Normative base
Order of the Federal Tax Service No. ММВ-7-8/ dated December 16, 2016 “On approval of the Procedure for changing the deadline for payment of taxes, fees, insurance premiums, as well as penalties and fines by tax authorities”
In practice, in different circumstances, a letter is drawn up with a request to defer payment to the supplier, customer , seller. Financial problems do not always arise through the fault of the debtor; they are often the result of a whole chain of non-fulfillment of obligations. To solve the problem, warn the supplier or counterparty, or postpone payment to a later date, a letter is drawn up requesting a deferred payment in free form. With its help, the terms of the contract actually change without drawing up an additional agreement. The best option is to agree in advance, before debt arises, in order to maintain mutually beneficial relationships with partners.
If you need to get a deferment or installment plan for paying taxes or insurance premiums, use a ready-made solution for legal entities or individuals for free.
Functions
All correspondence between the parties is legally binding and can be used in future legal proceedings. An ordinary request for a deferred payment under a contract performs the following functions:
- confirms the existence of contractual or non-contractual relationships;
- proves the fulfillment of obligations by the second party under the contract;
- proves the existence and amount of debt;
- confirms the intention to fulfill obligations and provide reliable and timely information to the counterparty;
- certifies the fact of notification of the counterparty about the presence of financial problems with the debtor.
A variation is a letter of request for installment plans (periodic equal payments). But counterparties prefer to arrange an installment plan with an additional agreement to provide additional guarantees due to a significant change in the conditions compared to those set out in the original agreement.
As an independent document, a letter to a counterparty requesting a deferred payment is written both on one’s own initiative and in response to a partner’s claim. In this case, the structure depends on the arguments and proposals set out in the claim.
Who can apply for a tax deferral due to coronavirus
To find out if a coronavirus tax deferment is available to you, determine if you qualify:
- On March 1, 2022, you must be on the register of small and medium-sized enterprises.
- The company's activities should be on the list of industries that were most affected by the crisis. The list was previously approved by the government (Decree No. 434 of April 3, 2022). The industry is determined by the main OKVED code in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities or Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs as of March 1, 2020. The list of industries that have been affected by the pandemic is gradually expanding. Recently, non-food retail was added there:
- The company's income has decreased significantly or losses have occurred. Tax officials explained:
- Companies can receive a deferment from three months to a year if their income decreases from 10 to 20%, for a period of more than six months - from 30 to 50%, or if there are losses while their income decreases by more than 30%.
An installment plan for three years can be obtained with a decrease in income by more than 50%, up to five years - for strategic, systemically important, city-forming organizations, the largest taxpayers with a decrease in income from 30 to 50%.
If you meet at least one of these requirements, you can submit an application to the tax office for a tax deferral (sample - here). On the Federal Tax Service website you can find out whether you will receive a deferment. To check, you only need to enter one detail: INN or OGRN.