Among the many rights and freedoms that the Constitution gives to a citizen of the Russian Federation, the principle of freedom to engage in economic or entrepreneurial activity should be highlighted. What it is?
Entrepreneurial activity is an activity carried out by a person at his own discretion with the aim of regularly making a profit from the provision of services and work by the entrepreneur or wage workers, sale of goods, personal skills and abilities, as well as from the use of property. Often, successful entrepreneurial activity of citizens results in the formation of their own small enterprises in the form of individual entrepreneurs or legal entities
The essence of the concept of "small business"
The main determining criterion for a small enterprise (MP) in the Russian Federation is the number of employees employed by the state or under GPC agreements. According to legislative acts, commercial entities (except for unitary municipal and state enterprises) belong to the subjects of MP. The share of these companies in the authorized capital of religious and public organizations, constituent entities of the Russian Federation, charitable and similar funds cannot exceed 25%. And the total percentage of foreign companies and large legal entities in these funds should be less than 49%.
The next most important criterion is the number of employees. It should fit into the following framework:
- for organizations in the field of industry, transport and construction - 100 people;
- for agricultural enterprises and companies engaged in the scientific and technical sphere, a limit of 60 people has been established;
- for wholesalers - 50 people;
- 30 enterprises for retail and consumer services;
- for organizations engaged in other industries, this qualification is 50 people.
The criteria of a small business also include individuals who engage in business without a legal entity. The list of business entities that can be considered as MPs can include: private entrepreneurs, farms, consumer cooperatives, business partnerships, business companies and production cooperatives.
The third important criterion is the amount of revenue. It should not exceed 120 million rubles for microenterprises, and 800 million for small enterprises.
Criteria for determining subjects of MP
The main components most often include the following components:
- annual turnover received by the enterprise;
- amount of authorized capital;
- average number of employees;
- value of assets.
Legal entities usually use three criteria (number of employees, revenue and requirements for the structure of equity), and individual entrepreneurs - only two (income and average headcount). In accordance with the Federal Law No. 209 “On the Development of Private Entrepreneurship and Joint Ventures in the Russian Federation” dated 24. 07. 2007, there is a state register where individuals who conduct their activities as entrepreneurs and legal entities are entered (commercial enterprises and consumer cooperatives, except for unitary municipal and state enterprises). These organizations can relate to the IB, i.e., the average number of employees per year should be 100 people.
Features of taxation MP
The economy of a small enterprise is stimulated by means of soft loans, tax incentives for the provision of services and production of goods, as well as the provision of equipment for leasing.According to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, MPs can use the OSNO (general taxation regime), the simplified regime - the simplified taxation system, as well as the “imputed” (UTII) and the Unified Social Tax Tax (tax regime for agricultural enterprises).
The possibility of UPDF (one of the benefits for MP) can be used by individual entrepreneurs and organizations with a maximum number of hired personnel of up to fifteen people. An enterprise is considered small only if during the past four quarters its revenue did not exceed a size equal to 1000 times the minimum wage. From July 1, 2017, one minimum wage is 7,800 rubles.
Benefits for MP
Great attention has always been paid to the development of the MP by the government. This is due to the fact that small enterprises in times of crisis are the very first to become bankrupt. Due to the small business sector in the country there is relatively healthy competition due to the rather high quality of services and manufactured goods, as well as sufficient flexibility in the structure of the organization of a small enterprise.
The first benefit applied since June 01, 2014 concerns permission to small companies not to limit the cash balance and keep money in it without a balance limit. To apply this benefit, it is enough for the accountant to draw up an appropriate order.
The second benefit relates to the possibility of the subject of MP to apply simplified methods of accounting. That is, for small organizations, abbreviated forms of financial statements are provided. And there are a number of PBUs that do not apply to them. It should also be remembered that there is practically no accounting for IP, and micro-enterprises are allowed to conduct accounting by the continuous recording of business transactions, that is, without the need to make entries. Thus, accounting of business transactions is organized, reporting is submitted. This is exactly what accounting features of small enterprises look like.
Measures of the Government of the Russian Federation aimed at supporting the MP
MP support programs are annually funded from the budget of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the Federal Securities Market, from other sources and funds from local budgets. Municipal and state programs for financing MP are carried out in the following areas:
- assistance in retraining, training and professional development of hired personnel;
- support for foreign trade activities of subjects of the MP, including participation in the development of trade, production, scientific, technical and information ties with other countries at the state level;
- achieving simplified registration of small enterprises, the so-called register of small enterprises;
- creating favorable conditions for the application of MP technologies and technical developments, information and material and technical resources, public finances;
- creation of infrastructure for the development and support of small enterprises.
Methods for enterprises to confirm MP status
Preferential terms when participating in government procurement are considered an additional advantage of MB. Ceteris paribus, organizations in the MP sphere represented in the database of requests-offers announcements are given preference when choosing over competitors. Some competitions are initially created in such a way that only small or medium-sized enterprises can submit an application for it. Therefore, when participating in public procurement, it is often necessary to confirm the organization's compliance with the criteria of a small enterprise. This can be done by understanding the structure of equity, calculating the number of employees and taking the results of entrepreneurial activity from the declaration for legal entities.
A company, in order to lose the benefits that are given to MPs, must cease to meet all the criteria for 3 consecutive years (previously 2 years). Thanks to recent changes, the need to confirm the status of MPs has disappeared, since it is automatically assigned in accordance with the data of the tax return. And the Federal Tax Service since August 2016 forms a register of small enterprises, where it takes into account all organizations related to small enterprises. This simplifies the process for firms to receive benefits.
Preferential lending for private equity
Many large banks have developed concessional lending programs for small businesses. Due to changes in criteria in 2016, some large companies can enter the segment of small and medium-sized businesses, therefore, take advantage of preferential lending products. This in turn will increase the number of loans issued, thereby lowering the interest rate on them. Sberbank, for example, offers start-up entrepreneurs a loan for MB “From scratch”, and for a business under the franchise scheme and an existing company - a package of credit services “Business start”.
Supervised vacation for MP
For all those who planned to start their own business, experts recommend doing this right now, because in accordance with the state program to stimulate the growth and development of the MB from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2018, all MPs are given supervised vacations for two years.
During this period, inspections at small enterprises cannot be carried out. For example, neither the sanitary inspector, nor the fire department, nor the representative of any other authority has the right to carry out an inspection. The limits of on-site non-tax inspections have also been reduced: for microenterprises — no more than 15 hours a year, and for MPs — no more than 50.