People tend to unite according to their interests, to solve common problems and to satisfy any specific needs. In a team, all issues are resolved more easily. For this, there is such a thing as a consumer cooperative. This legal form can not be found as often as commercial organizations, but it exists and is actively used in some areas of society. This article examines the interpretation of the concept of "consumer cooperative", the forms and types of such communities, the contents of the charter and other useful information on the topic.
Deciphering the concept
The activities of consumer cooperatives are aimed at meeting the specific needs of citizens or legal entities that comprise it. Basically, the goals are material in nature. Any person who has reached the age of sixteen, as well as various legal entities, can join the cooperative. The minimum number of participants is five individuals or three legal entities.
Consumer cooperative - a phenomenon regulated by the state at the legislative level. The main provisions are reflected in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. More detailed decipherments and subtleties of regulation are reflected in the Federal Law "On Consumer Cooperation in the Russian Federation" No. 3085-1 of June 19, 1992. The federal law contains information on the creation of cooperatives, their structure, features of participation, property issues, as well as questions about the reorganization, liquidation and consolidation of existing companies.
What do cooperatives do
A consumer cooperative is a community of people founded to achieve certain economic goals. Decisions are made by voting. Each member of the cooperative has a vote, which he has the right to cast for a certain option for the further development of events. That is, one contributor is one vote. At the same time, the direction of the company’s activity can be any: there are construction, housing, garage, country, agricultural and other cooperatives. The people in these organizations are united by one goal.
The state provides for the regulation of certain types of cooperatives by separate legislative acts. These include agricultural, credit and housing cooperatives. They are regulated, respectively, by the Housing Code and the Laws "On Agricultural Cooperation" and "On Credit Cooperation".
Forms of consumer cooperatives
Depending on the problem for which a consumer community is being created, cooperatives are divided into several forms. The following is a list with decryption.
- Building and consumer cooperative. It is created for the purpose of ownership and use of real estate (various buildings).
- Housing cooperative. Members of this community organized their own cooperative with the goal of constructing a residential building, in which they will subsequently reside.
- Garage cooperative. Includes owners of garages built on a separate territory.
- Country cooperative. A group of people owning land used as a summer house or garden in a certain area.
- Housing funded cooperative. Such societies are joined by citizens who jointly want to purchase or build housing.
- Consumer society or consumer cooperative of citizens - cooperation between citizens and legal entities. This form was especially popular in the USSR.
- Agricultural cooperative.It includes agricultural enterprises, as well as individual farmers engaged in their own farming.
- Service cooperatives. They can conduct quite extensive and diverse activities - insurance, transport services, resorts, medical services, repairs, consultations in various fields.
- Credit consumer cooperative. It is created to address the financial issues of participants. Personal savings at an interest rate are attracted to the cooperative, loans are issued, financial mutual assistance is provided.
The meaning of opening cooperatives
Non-profit consumer cooperatives - previously a very common legal form. Cooperatives opened everywhere territorially and in all economic spheres. Their numbers gradually decreased after the perestroika times of 1991. The property of cooperatives was privatized by more enterprising people, and citizens forgot how to build relationships on trust. However, the practice of cooperatives has proven effective. People create such communities with completely different goals: to purchase goods at lower prices, to evenly distribute the costs of household maintenance and repair services, jointly accumulate capital and build housing. The advantages of cooperatives are obvious: due to the large number of participants it is possible to carry out wholesale purchases at prices much lower than market prices, there is the possibility of accumulating funds and its rational distribution in matters of servicing land and other property. At the same time, the board in cooperatives is carried out by voting, which allows all members of society to speak out, and not to transfer all power to one person. It is impossible to imagine some activities without cooperatives today - garages, gardens, summer residences, rural communities.
Pros and cons of opening a cooperative
Any legal form has certain advantages and disadvantages. The situation is the same with cooperatives. The organization of a consumer cooperative brings the following advantages to the participants:
- Equality and resolving issues through voting. No matter what contribution the participant made, the amount may vary significantly, but the “weight” of the vote will be the same for everyone. Important issues are resolved only jointly, some decisions can be made and even only with a unanimous vote.
- In cooperatives, all participants work. There can be no more than a quarter of the total number of people unemployed. At the same time, there is a minimum of employees.
- The frequency of income distribution is established in the cooperative also by voting. At the same time, you can share what you earned at least daily. But the amount of dividends issued should not exceed half of net income.
- Work takes place in a team of "friends". Questions on the acceptance of a new member are also accepted by voting. If someone is against expanding the number of participants, you cannot accept a newbie.
- The number of participants is not limited. There can be infinitely many. But there is a minimum threshold of 5 people.
- The organization of a consumer cooperative is also good in terms of taxation. If the number of participants is less than 100, and the income is less than 80 thousand rubles, the cooperative has the right to use the simplified tax system.
- The minimum age threshold for participants is 16 years.
Cons, of course, are also enough. If you look at all these positive sides from a different angle, we will see the following picture:
- It is impossible to independently decide in which direction to continue development, where to spend profits and whether to accept a new participant.
- You can exit the cooperative by taking your share and income due for the period. At the same time, property that cannot be divided remains free of charge with the cooperative. You can sell your share either to other participants or to a third party, if this was allowed by voting.
- Hiring employees in a cooperative is quite difficult and not always allowed.
- The participants in the cooperative are responsible for all their property with debts, and not just the shares contributed to the organization.
The process of opening a cooperative
The organization of a consumer cooperative is not so difficult at the initial stage as it might seem. The process of creating a society begins with the search for partners. There should be at least five. But it can be working and unemployed, free and remote employees, pensioners and schoolchildren from 16 years old. A legal organization may act as a sponsor. She, of course, will not work at the level with everyone, but she can provide the means for the first time. As a reward, a share is allocated to her, which means a part of deferred income.
Complete anarchy is impossible in any society, therefore, a cooperative also needs a person who will represent its interests. This person is called the chairman. On behalf of the cooperative, it carries out all legally significant actions: registration, liquidation, reorganization, representation in the courts and tax inspection. With the number of ten or more, a board will be required. With the number of participants from fifty people - the Supervisory Board.
Next, the charter of the consumer cooperative and the minutes of the meeting on the establishment are written. After that, the participants make the amount of share contributions in the amount of at least 10 percent of the contribution of each of them. A temporary account is opened, cash is paid in cash or non-cash with the mark "share contribution". Not only money is accepted, the contribution can be paid by property. It is evaluated by the participants and drawn up in a free form. After this procedure, you must pay the state fee. Its size is 4,000 rubles. After paying the fee, you can submit documents to the tax office to register a legal entity. A few days later you need to get a ready certificate.
What is written in the charter
The charter is the most important document of any organization. It spells out all the nuances of work. Cooperatives are no exception. There are legislatively provided clauses which are necessarily brought in the charter. A company of this nature must have the following data in its constituent documents:
- full name of the legal entity;
- actual and legal address;
- purpose of creation and main line of activity;
- the rules adopted by the participants on the procedure for admission and exit from the cooperative;
- information on contributions, their size, payment procedure, late penalties;
- structure and composition of the control apparatus;
- list of rights and obligations of participants;
- information on how profit and loss are distributed between members of the company;
- description of the reorganization and liquidation procedures.
If the charter is drawn up with errors, it will not be accepted in the tax. You will have to make adjustments, then pay the state fee again and only after that again apply for registration. This is not only a waste of time, but also money. Therefore, people who do not understand the nuances of office work prefer to hire a lawyer. On your own, you can also do. On the Internet there are a lot of templates. The founders of the company will only need to carefully replace the data of the fictional organization with their own.
Consumer Cooperative: Capital
The main source of funds of any cooperative is the contributions of its members. Primary funds of a consumer cooperative are formed exclusively at the expense of participants. In the future, capital can be increased in various ways, depending on the direction of the organization. For example, a production and production cooperative can raise funds by selling goods and services. At the same time, the garage cooperative exists exclusively on the contributions of participants.
The size of the mutual fund is not fixed and not limited in size by law, unlike a limited liability company. Its size is determined by the general meeting before registering with the tax. In the future, also by the general meeting, decisions can be made on changing the fixed assets.
Credit Consumer Cooperative
A credit cooperative is created by citizens or legal entities on a voluntary basis. The minimum number of members is 15 individuals or 5 legal entities. The purpose of the creation is to satisfy the financial interests and needs of its members. Two varieties stand out:
- credit cooperative of individuals (in such a cooperative of legal entities it cannot be);
- credit cooperative of the 2nd level (this form combines several credit cooperatives).
Credit cooperative is a non-profit organization, designed to meet the needs of shareholders. To achieve these goals, he combines the funds contributed by the participants, then offers them, if necessary, as a loan to his shareholders. In addition, other actions may be carried out that should lead to the purpose for which the society was created. The activities of such cooperatives are regulated by the Bank of Russia and the Law "On Credit Cooperation".
Participation in a credit cooperative is often a much more profitable option than loans and loans from banks. For its shareholders, the company sets the most optimal loan conditions. The interest for which a loan is issued is almost always lower than the average banking one, and the term may be more optimal for a cooperative participant. The most relevant part in such a cooperative is for people whose activities are constantly associated with borrowed funds.
SEC
Agricultural consumer cooperatives - the most common type of community in our time. Naturally, the bulk of all these organizations are in villages and rural areas. It is there that it makes sense to engage in this activity. Agricultural consumer cooperative can be of any orientation:
- livestock;
- horticultural;
- gardening;
- procurement;
- attendant;
- trade;
- processing;
- SEC of a different kind.
You can open it with a minimum number of participants of 5 people or 2 organizations. In this case, there is a condition on the work for members of the SEC. Namely, at least 50% of all work must be done for the participants.
The process of opening a company begins with developing a plan, submitting applications for participation from shareholders and holding a general meeting. Documents for registration of a cooperative are submitted after the completion of these stages.
For individual farmers and rural residents who run their households, participation in the SEC is beneficial. It is difficult and time-consuming to process huge areas of land without expensive equipment, and at the opening of the SEC it is possible to purchase this equipment for the benefit of each participant. The same goes for equipment for poultry and livestock breeders. Special buildings, equipment for the care, medical care of animals, the purchase of feed - all this becomes much more profitable when opening a legal entity. Thus, the quality of products, their quantity increases, and the costs of each individual participant become lower.
Reviews
Open a consumer cooperative is not so difficult. Just need to fill out a few papers, draw up a charter and register with the tax. By and large, it is not even necessary to personally engage in paperwork. Instead, it is better to turn to lawyers who know better what needs to be done when organizing such an activity as consumer cooperatives. Reviews, by the way, just indicate that difficulties, as a rule, arise later. And most often then, when it is necessary to collectively resolve issues regarding the activities of the cooperative.As practice and reviews of experienced members of such societies show, it is at this stage that disagreements may arise. It is not always possible to unanimously decide where to spend the profit, how and when to divide it, how to develop a cooperative in the future, and many other issues. Injustice is especially acute for those whose contributions are an order of magnitude higher than the rest. The amount is different, and the votes are equivalent. At the same time, leaving society is not so simple. Therefore, if you decide to open such an organization, consider the feedback from people who have already taken these steps in their lives:
- Do not open a cooperative if you want to lead in person;
- prefer to invest rather than work;
- suggest future hiring of employees;
- Do not want to risk personal property;
- In the future you plan to sell a share in the cooperative.