Debt write-off: accounting and tax accounting

The procedure for writing off receivables and payables always raises many questions even among accountants with excellent track record, since in the activities of almost every organization situations always arise when the counterparty refuses to pay or simply liquidated without paying off the obligations.

In this article we will consider the main issues of recording and writing off accounts payable and receivable, that is, how, where, when and on the basis of what documents to write off this debt, both in accounting and tax accounting.

Inventory of payments is a reconciliation of the amounts of receivables and payables according to the data of your organization and the data of its counterparties.

According to Federal Law No. 402-FZ “On Accounting”, namely Part 1 of Article 11, organizations are required to conduct an inventory of their assets and liabilities. In accordance with Part 3 of Article 11 of Law No. 402-FZ, economic entities themselves establish the cases, timing and procedure for conducting an inventory, as well as the list of objects subject to inventory. But there is one exception: some assets and liabilities are subject to mandatory inventory, which is established by the legislation of the Russian Federation, federal and industry standards.

The inventory process establishes the correctness and validity of reflecting the amounts of receivables and payables through documentary verification. The basic principles of conducting an inventory are established by order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated June 13, 1995 No. 49 “Guidelines for the inventory of property and financial obligations.”

The number of inventories in the reporting year, as well as the date of their conduct, the list of property and financial liabilities inspected, are established by the head of the organization (clause 2.1 of the Methodological Instructions), except for the cases provided for in clauses 1.5 and 1.6 of the Inventory Guidelines.
In accordance with paragraph 4 of the Accounting Regulations “Accounting Policy of the Organization” (PBU 1/2008), approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated October 6, 2008 No. 106n, when forming an accounting policy, the organization approves the procedure for conducting an inventory of its assets and liabilities.

According to paragraphs 27, 77, 78 of the Accounting Regulations No. 34n, an inventory of calculations is required to be carried out:

• when writing off receivables and payables;
• before preparing annual financial statements;
• when creating a reserve for doubtful debts.

The procedure for conducting an inventory is as follows.
The accountant needs to draw up a certificate of debt (receivable or payable). The certificate indicates the information reflected in the accounting records of the debt. The certificate must also contain information about the names of the organization’s debtors and creditors, the grounds for the debt, the period when the debt arose and details of the documents confirming it. For convenience, debt amounts in the certificate are grouped by accounting accounts. Based on a certificate of debt (receivable or payable), as well as acts of reconciliation with counterparties or other documents in which debtors and creditors confirm the existence and amount of debt, an act is drawn up (clauses 73, 74 of the Accounting Regulations No. 34n, Instructions, approved by Resolution of the State Statistics Committee No. 88).

The act is drawn up on the basis of the unified form No. INV17. The organization has the right to develop its own document to record inventory results. But it must be remembered that such a document must contain all the details established in Article 9 of Law No. 402-FZ, and its form must be approved by the manager. This can be done in the annex to the accounting policies.

If the organization decides not to create a reconciliation report, then the agreement on the amount of debt can be confirmed by a letter from the counterparty acknowledging its debt. Amounts of debt recognized and not recognized by debtors and creditors, as well as amounts of unrecoverable debts with an expired statute of limitations or for liquidated counterparties are reflected in the act separately.

Based on bad receivables or payables identified during the inventory, it is necessary to prepare an order from the manager to write off bad debts.

Accounts receivable

Accounts receivable are a property claim of an organization against its debtors, arising as a result of a concluded agreement or legal norm.
Accounts receivable arise due to failure to fulfill contractual obligations. Overdue receivables are debts that are not repaid on time. The debt is listed on the organization’s balance sheet until it is repaid by the debtor or is considered uncollectible.

The organization has the right to collect overdue receivables within the limitation period. According to Article 195 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the limitation period is the period for protecting the right in a claim of a person whose right has been violated.

Accounts receivable are considered uncollectible and must be written off from the balance sheet in full, including VAT, if one of the following circumstances occurs:

• the statute of limitations has expired;
• the debtor is liquidated;
• excluded from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities as an inactive legal entity;
• The bailiff issued a decision to terminate the enforcement proceedings and return the writ of execution to the recoverer due to the impossibility of collection.

In accordance with paragraph 77 of Regulation No. 34n, on the basis of an inventory, accounts receivable with an expired statute of limitations, as well as debt that is unrealistic for collection on other grounds, are written off as expenses for each obligation, as well as in accordance with written justification and order of the head of the organization.
Accounts receivable are written off at the expense of the created reserve for doubtful debts or against financial results, if the reserve was not created in the manner prescribed by paragraph 70 of Regulation No. 34n.

Writing off receivables at a loss when the debt is not repaid and the statute of limitations has expired is not grounds for canceling the debt. The debt must be reflected on the balance sheet within five years from the date of write-off. This is necessary to monitor the possibility of collection.

According to paragraphs 4 and 11 of the Accounting Regulations “Expenses of the Organization” PBU 10/99, the amount of written off receivables is included in other expenses.
Other expenses are reflected in account 91 “Other income and expenses” (Chart of accounts for accounting of financial and economic activities of organizations and Instructions for its application, approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated October 31, 2000 No. 94n).

Writing off the debt of counterparties to the enterprise

According to accounting requirements, debts of counterparties are subject to accounting on off-balance sheet account 007 as other expenses of the enterprise.

Tax accounting rules require that receivables be classified as non-operating expenses.

If the debtor nevertheless fulfills the obligations after write-off, the accountant is obliged to classify the receipt of funds as other income, write off the money from account 007 and classify the funds as non-operating income for tax purposes.

Important! Tax accounting provides for a situation where debt is written off at the expense of the organization’s own profits and is not reflected in tax accounting. In this case, repayment of the debt by the debtor will not affect the tax base.

Writing off accounts receivable is a fairly responsible procedure that can be faced by any institution to which counterparties have not repaid the debt.

Debts can be written off only if there are appropriate grounds provided for by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

The period for writing off receivables is discussed in the article: writing off receivables. You can find the structure of accounts receivable here.

Read about accounts receivable valuation here.

The procedure for writing off receivables

The procedure for writing off accounts receivable in accounting is as follows. On the date of recognition of receivables that are unrealistic for collection, that is, on the date of expiration of the limitation period, an entry is made for the amount of the created reserve:

• Debit 63 “Provisions for doubtful debts”
• Credit 62 “Settlements with buyers and customers” (60 “Settlements with suppliers and contractors”, 76 “Settlements with other debtors and creditors”, etc.) - a debt that is unrealistic for collection is written off against the reserve.

If the created reserve is not enough, the following transactions are made:

• Debit 91 “Other income and expenses”
• Credit 62 (60, 76, etc.) - a debt that is unrealistic to collect is written off;
• Debit 007 “Debt of insolvent debtors written off at a loss” —uncollectible debt is taken into account to monitor the possibility of its collection in the event of a change in the debtor’s property status.

If the debtor nevertheless pays the debt in the future, the following entries will be made in the accounting:

• Debit 51 “Current accounts”
• Loan 62 (60, 76, etc.) - funds received from the debtor;
• Debit 62 (60, 76, etc.) Credit 91 - debt received is included in other income;
• Loan 007 - a bad debt repaid by the debtor is written off.

In tax accounting, in accordance with paragraph 2 of Article 266 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, bad debts (debts that are unrealistic for collection) are those debts to the taxpayer for which the established statute of limitations has expired (3 years from the date the debt arose, Article 196 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), and also those debts for which, in accordance with civil law, the obligation is terminated due to the impossibility of its fulfillment, on the basis of an act of a state body or the liquidation of an organization.
Debts that are unrealistic for collection are also recognized as debts, the impossibility of collection of which is confirmed by a decree of the bailiff on the completion of enforcement proceedings, issued in the manner established by the Federal Law of 02.10.2007 No. 229-FZ “On Enforcement Proceedings”, in the event of the return of the enforcement order to the collector document.

The debts of a company that has ceased operations are hopeless from the date of its exclusion from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (Letters of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated March 25, 2016 No. 03-03-06/1/16721, dated July 24, 2015 No. 03-01-10/42792, Resolutions of the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region dated February 24 .2015 No. F05-413/2015, Arbitration Court Central District dated June 18, 2015 No. F10-1693/2015).

When writing off debt due to the liquidation of the debtor organization, you must also have a document confirming the liquidation of the debtor organization - an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated March 14, 2014 No. 03-03-06/1/11063).

Thus, the basis for writing off the debt may be the expiration of three years from the date the debt arose, or the debt may be written off on the basis of a resolution of the bailiff on the completion of enforcement proceedings (due to the fact that the debtor does not have property that can be applied to collection, it is impossible to establish the location of the debtor, his property, etc.), or liquidation of the organization, or exclusion of the organization from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
According to subparagraph 2 of paragraph 2 of Article 265 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, receivables with an expired statute of limitations are written off as non-operating expenses.

How to write off bad debts to the tax authorities

What is bad debt

A debt is considered bad if it cannot be collected from the debtor. For a debt to be considered bad, it must fall into one of these categories (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated November 16, 2010 No. 03-03-06/1/725):

• the statute of limitations has expired;
• the obligation under it is terminated:

a) due to the impossibility of its execution

b) on the basis of an act of a state body

c) as a result of liquidation of the organization

• the impossibility of collection is confirmed by the decision of the bailiff on the completion of enforcement proceedings;
• The debtor citizen is declared bankrupt and, therefore, his debts are considered repaid (clause 2 of Article 266 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, a new basis that is valid from January 1, 2022).

Below we will analyze each category in detail.

Why and how to write off a bad debt to the tax authorities

When taking inventory of receivables, you can identify old debts that can no longer be collected and take into account losses from their write-off, reducing the taxable base for income tax by the amount of receivables (clause 2, clause 2, article 265 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

To write off a bad debt, you need to submit documents that confirm the existence of a debt under a supply agreement, payment for services or work: a delivery note or a delivery and acceptance certificate and an inventory report of receivables, indicating that the counterparty’s debt has not been repaid.

It is best to conduct an inventory of expenses at the end of each reporting or tax period in order to timely attribute overdue debts to expenses. Accounts receivable must be included as expenses during the period when the statute of limitations has passed.

The manager must issue an order to write off bad debts on the basis of an accounting certificate, which indicates that the statute of limitations on the debt has passed, and refer to the primary supporting documents - agreements and payment documents, which must indicate the period of occurrence of the debt, the deadline for payment under the agreement , conditions for deferred payment and the beginning of delay in payment, invoices and work acceptance certificates.

Documents for writing off accounts receivable

To document the procedures and results of the accounts receivable inventory, the following documents are needed:

• order (decree, order) to conduct an inventory (Unified Form No. INV-22);
• act of inventory of settlements with buyers, suppliers and other debtors and creditors (Unified Form No. INV-17);
• certificate to the act of inventory of settlements with buyers, suppliers and other debtors and creditors (appendix to form No. INV-17);
• order from the head of the organization to write off accounts receivable;
• accounting information.

To write off accounts receivable you need:

• documents confirming the occurrence of debt (contracts, invoices, certificates of work performed, services rendered, etc.);
• documents confirming the interruption of the limitation period (debt reconciliation acts, letters, agreements, acceptances, etc.), if the period was interrupted;
• acts of inventory of obligations.

These documents must be stored for at least five years from the date of write-off for accounting purposes, and for at least four years for tax accounting.

During a tax audit, the taxpayer must document the occurrence of receivables, otherwise he will face non-recognition of written off receivables as a loss, additional taxes, penalties and fines.

What debts are considered bad

• time-barred debt

If the debt has not been confirmed for more than three years, it goes into the category of bad debt (Article 196 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and paragraph 2 of Article 200 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). The limitation period begins after the date of debt formation and is renewed (Article 203 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) after each new confirmation of the debt by both parties - when signing a reconciliation report, receiving from the counterparty a letter of guarantee with an expected term or schedule for payment of the debt, or a letter requesting a deferred payment, partial payment of the debt or payment of a penalty for late payment.

If the tax inspectorate has not attempted to collect the debt for three years, after this period it cannot demand payment from the creditor and will receive a denial of the claim if it tries to collect the debt through the court.

If the taxpayer himself overpaid the tax office and forgot about it, and more than three years have passed since the overpayment, it will also be impossible to return or recalculate the payment, since in this case the statute of limitations is also three years.

Comment by Pavel Timokhin, head of UBC

By independently maintaining tax records, the taxpayer often incorrectly reflects his income and expenses in the declaration and incorrectly calculates the amount of tax. If for 2014 he was supposed to charge VAT on 500,000 rubles, but mistakenly charged and declared only 200,000 rubles, and the tax office only checked the documents in 2022, its demand for payment of the balance will not be satisfied, since the taxpayer can easily prove court that the statute of limitations has expired.

Exceptions are cases when the situation is related to a criminal offense and the statute of limitations is 15 years (Clause 1 of Article 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

If an entrepreneur indicated 300,000 rubles in the declaration, but did not pay them, and the tax inspectorate assessed and wrote off a penalty of 30,000 rubles from the current account, later the taxpayer recalculated the amount of tax and reduced it to 100,000 rubles, and the tax will also decrease along with it. penalty amount up to 8,000 rubles. The same 22,000 rubles that have already been withdrawn can be considered an overpayment. Here you need to remember about this amount and not try to collect it after the statute of limitations has expired.

• debt, the obligation for which has been terminated due to the impossibility of its fulfillment (clause 1 of Article 416 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation)

An obligation cannot be fulfilled if neither party is responsible for it due to objective circumstances, for example, a fire or flood that destroyed all the debtor’s property.

To confirm the impossibility of collecting the debt in this case, you need to submit a certificate from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the fire inspectorate with a list of lost property and data on the absence of other property from the debtor. Also, the obligation may terminate due to the death of the debtor (Article 418 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

• a debt that cannot be collected on the basis of an act of a state body (clause 1 of Article 417 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation)

If, as a result of laws, decrees, regulations, orders and regulations, the fulfillment of an obligation becomes impossible. This could be, for example, acts on limited use of airspace, cessation of loading of cargo and luggage, prohibition of entry into the port, import and export of goods when suppliers cannot deliver goods to buyers.

• debt that cannot be collected due to the liquidation of the debtor organization (Article 419 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation)

a) by decision of its founders (participants), including in connection with the expiration of the period for which the legal entity was created, with the achievement of the purpose for which it was created (clause 2 of Article 61 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation);

b) by court decision in cases provided for in paragraph 3 of Art. 61 Civil Code of the Russian Federation;

c) as a result of declaring a legal entity bankrupt (clause 6 of Article 61 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

An organization has the right to recognize a debt as bad and include its amount in expenses when calculating the income tax base after making an entry in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities on the exclusion of a legal entity-debtor from the register (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated March 25, 2016 No. 03-03-06/1/16721 ).

An extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities can serve as documentary evidence of the liquidation of the debtor organization (Article 6 of Federal Law No. 129-FZ dated 08.08.2001 (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated 03.25.2016 No. 03-03-06/1/16721)).

However, information about the liquidation of a counterparty posted on the official website of the Federal Tax Service cannot be used as the only documentary evidence of expenses in the form of the amount of bad debt written off (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated February 15, 2007 No. 03-03-06/1/98).

Tax authorities have the right to exclude an inactive legal entity from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities in the so-called simplified procedure.

A legal entity that has not submitted reports on taxes and fees for 12 months and has not carried out transactions on at least one bank account is considered to have actually ceased its activities (Article 64.2 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

An organization can write off as tax expenses the debts of a legal entity that has actually ceased its activities, starting from the date of exclusion of this person from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (Letters of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated March 25, 2016 No. 03-03-06/1/16721, dated January 23, 2015 No. 03 01 10 /1982).

However, an extract from the Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs on the termination of the activities of an individual entrepreneur is not a sufficient basis for recognizing the debt as bad (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated September 16, 2015 No. 03-03-06/53157).

After exclusion from the Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs, an individual entrepreneur loses the right to engage in entrepreneurial activities, but continues to bear property liability to creditors as a citizen. Despite the fact that an individual has lost his individual entrepreneur status, the creditor organization will not be able to take his debt into account in expenses when calculating the income tax base.

• if the debtor is declared bankrupt

The insolvency of a company can be recognized as a result of bankruptcy. If at the time of bankruptcy proceedings the company has nothing to collect, its debt is considered uncollectible. This can be confirmed by an act of bailiffs or a bankruptcy commission.

If an organization has a debt to it from an individual, and this person is declared bankrupt and released from obligations, including to it, the organization has the right to take this debt into account when calculating the taxable base.

• the impossibility of debt collection was confirmed by the bailiff’s decision on the completion of enforcement proceedings

If it is impossible to establish the location of the debtor and his property or obtain information about the availability of funds and other valuables belonging to him, located in accounts, deposits or in storage in banks or other credit organizations, or the debtor does not have property that can be recovered, and legal The bailiffs were unable to find him.

What debts are not recognized as bad and cannot be taken into account in reducing the income tax base (clause 2 of Article 266 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation)

• if the country of the foreign counterparty-debtor has introduced restrictions on the fulfillment of obligations in relation to Russian organizations (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated 06/07/2017 No. 03-03-06/1/35488);
• the court made a decision to refuse to collect the debt (Letters of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated July 22, 2016 No. 03-03-06/1/42962, dated September 18, 2009 No. 03-03-06/1/591 and dated February 2, 2006 No. 03-03 -04/1/72);
• the debtor ceased operations due to a merger with another legal entity. In this case, the rights and obligations of the debtor are transferred to a new legal entity (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated September 6, 2016 No. 03-03-06/1/52041 and Article 58 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

Documents confirming the formation of receivables

It must be remembered that one of the mandatory conditions for including bad debt in tax expenses is the availability of primary documents confirming the formation of receivables with an expired statute of limitations.
A business entity must have documents confirming the fact of the occurrence of debt, documents indicating the expiration of the limitation period. The formation of bad debts, as well as the amounts and terms can be confirmed:

• an agreement that specifies the due date for payment;
• invoices for the transfer of valuables, acts of acceptance of services rendered (when executed in accordance with the terms of the contract);
• payment orders, as well as an inventory report of receivables at the end of the reporting (tax) period, indicating that at the time of writing off the specified debt was not repaid;
• by order of the manager to write off accounts receivable as bad debts (see: Letter of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation for Moscow dated April 13, 2011 No. 16-15 / [email protected] ).

Also, documents confirming the fact of the occurrence of receivables can be any primary documents that comply with the requirements of Law No. 402-FZ on the completion of a business transaction, as a result of which the counterparty’s debt to the taxpayer arose (invoices for the transfer of valuables, acts of acceptance and delivery of work (services), payment documents, etc.) (see Letter of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation dated December 6, 2010 No. ШС37-3/16955)
In accordance with paragraph 7 of Article 272 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the date for recognition of non-operating expenses for profit tax purposes has been established. According to this article of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, expenses in the form of bad debts for which the statute of limitations has expired are taken into account as part of non-operating expenses on the last day of the reporting period in which the said period expires (see: Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated 02/06/2015 No. 03-03 -06/1/4995).

The provisions of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation do not provide the taxpayer with the right to arbitrarily choose a tax period (at his own discretion) in which uncollectible receivables are included in expenses.

A business entity, conducting an inventory as of the last date of the reporting (tax) period, must, based on the results of the inventory, determine the amount of receivables, unrecoverable receivables (for example, for which the statute of limitations has expired), and write off this debt. This algorithm of actions is given by the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation in Resolution No. 1574/10 dated June 15, 2010 in case No. A56-4354/2009. At the same time, the interpretation of legal norms contained therein is generally binding and is subject to application when arbitration courts consider similar cases.

Accordingly, a taxpayer may consider a bad receivable that arose in March 2015 as a bad debt for income tax purposes as of March 31, 2022. Overdue debt will be included in non-operating expenses in March 2018.

In order to avoid disputes with inspectors, the write-off of receivables that are hopeless for collection must be reflected precisely in the period in which they became hopeless (Clause 2 of Article 266 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
It is very risky to transfer the bad recognition of receivables as expenses to the next tax or reporting period (see Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated 04/06/2016 No. 03-03-06/2/19410). In tax accounting, the procedure for writing off bad debts depends on the availability of a reserve for doubtful debts. If not, write off all bad debt as an expense. If a reserve was created, write off the debt against the reserve, that is, reduce the reserve for bad debts. If the reserve is not enough, include the remaining debt in expenses (clause 2, clause 2, article 265 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, Letter of the Ministry of Finance dated January 16, 2018 No. 03-03-06/2/1551).

Legal basis

The procedure and conditions for writing off receivables are regulated by the following legal and by-laws:

In addition to the above legal acts, there are various letters from the Ministry of Finance regulating the rules for writing off receivables.

Find out how to pay off accounts receivable in the article: paying off accounts receivable. What is doubtful accounts receivable on the balance sheet is described in this article.

Accounts payable

Accounts payable are debts payable.
Accounts payable arise when an advance is received from buyers, but goods (work, services) have not yet been sold, or if goods (work, services) have been received from a supplier, and money for them has not yet been paid. On the one hand, accounts payable are funds raised to conduct business activities, and, as a rule, without paying interest. This is the positive side of accounts payable. At the same time, overdue accounts payable can lead to the need to pay penalties, bring legal claims, and in the worst case, declaring the enterprise bankrupt. Accounts payable that cannot be collected due to the expiration of the statute of limitations are written off to increase the financial result.

The procedure for writing off accounts payable in the accounting records of an organization is regulated by the Accounting Regulations “Income of the Organization” PBU 9/99, approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated May 6, 1999 No. 32n (hereinafter referred to as PBU 9/99) and Regulation No. 34n.

According to clause 7, 10.4 of PBU 9/99, the amount of accounts payable that is unrealistic for collection, for which the statute of limitations has expired, is other income and is included in the organization’s income in the amount in which this debt was reflected in the accounting records.

Amounts of accounts payable for which the statute of limitations has expired, in accordance with paragraph 78 of Regulation No. 34n, are written off for each obligation based on the inventory data, written justification and order (instruction) of the head of the organization and are included in the financial results of business entities.

Thus, the documents for writing off accounts payable are similar to the documents for writing off accounts receivable.

Amounts of accounts payable for which the statute of limitations has expired, according to the Chart of Accounts, are reflected in the credit of account 91 “Other income and expenses” during the reporting period in correspondence with accounts payable.

The write-off of the amount of accounts payable with an expired statute of limitations is reflected in the organization's accounting as follows:
Debit 60, 62, 76 Credit 91, subaccount “Other income” - accounts payable are written off.

Amounts of accounts payable in accordance with paragraph 18 of Article 250 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation are taken into account as part of non-operating income in the full amount (including VAT).

If there is debt specified in subparagraph 21 of paragraph 1 of Article 251 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, it is not included in the income that forms the tax base for income tax.

Accounts payable with an expired statute of limitations are taken into account as part of non-operating income according to inventory data, written justification and order of the organization’s management.

The date of recognition of non-operating income for profit tax purposes is established by paragraph 4 of Article 271 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Income in the form of accounts payable for which the statute of limitations has expired is taken into account as part of non-operating income on the last day of the reporting period in which the statute of limitations expires (see Letter of the Ministry of Finance dated January 28, 2013 No. 03-03-06/1/38 and Letter of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation for Moscow dated July 4, 2008 No. 20-12/063584).

The Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation stated that “an economic entity must take into account the amounts of claims of creditors for which the statute of limitations has expired as part of non-operating income in a certain tax period (the year of expiration of the limitation period), and not in one arbitrarily chosen by the organization (clause 18 of Art. 250 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). This obligation is subject to fulfillment regardless of whether the organization carried out an inventory of the debt and whether, based on its results, an order was issued by the manager to write off the debt" (see Resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated 06/08/2010 No. 17462/09 in case No. A26-5933/2008 ).

The Resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated July 15, 2008 No. 3596/08 in case No. A57-10603/06-6 states that “the procedure for writing off accounts payable is regulated by Regulation No. 34n. Therefore, in the absence of an order (instruction) from the manager to write off accounts payable, there were no grounds for the inspectorate to charge income tax, as well as penalties and fines for the amount of accounts payable.”

Taking into account the above, we recommend that you take a more scrupulous approach to this issue, more carefully monitor the presence of the organization’s accounts payable and pay special attention to their statute of limitations (being on the balance sheet) in order to draw up all the necessary documents on time and write them off in the required period.

To avoid tax risks, we recommend issuing an order to write off accounts payable in the reporting (tax) period in which the statute of limitations expired.

In the same tax (reporting) period, it is necessary to take into account non-operating income from debt write-off. If an organization misses the date for writing off accounts payable due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, then it is safer to make corrections during the reporting (tax) period when the statute of limitations has expired and submit an updated declaration (clause 1 of article 54, article 81 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation ). But it must be remembered that before submitting the updated declaration, it is necessary to pay the debt and penalties in order to avoid fines from controlled authorities.