Patent for self-employed citizens of the Russian Federation in 2021: what is it and how to apply for it

Who is self-employed?

These are persons who do not have their own employer and superiors. They do not have employees or managers; they work independently. They engage in small trade or provide services to the public and companies of any size.

These people are engaged in professional activities from which they receive income and pay taxes to the state. There are many types of such activities. Here are some activities for the self-employed:

nannies;
tutors;
copywriters;
cooks;
taxi drivers;
seamstresses;
confectioners.

If in 2021 it began as an experiment, then by mid-October 2021 the tax regime for the self-employed began to apply throughout the country. Previously, people were looking for information in which regions they could become self-employed; they had to have at least one client from the regions where this regime applies. And now this is possible in any region of the country and even for some people from other countries.

Any individual and even an individual entrepreneur can become self-employed if he decides to change his status and switch to a different tax regime.

Self-employment: opportunities and limitations

Citizens who do not have an employer for certain types of activities and are not employers themselves (who do not employ hired workers) can receive the status of self-employed. In this case, it is not necessary to acquire individual entrepreneur status. The tax burden on such working citizens is significantly reduced - no more than 6% of the income received if the client was a legal entity or individual entrepreneur, and when working with an individual the rate is even lower (4%).

Combining this tax regime with other taxation regimes, for example, the simplified tax system, is prohibited. If income exceeded 2.4 million rubles. per year, the regime cannot be applied. There are other restrictions in the legislation. They relate to types of activities.

The specified tax regime does not apply if:

a citizen sells a product that is subject to mandatory labeling and excise duty;
we are talking about the resale of property rights, goods (if the property was used for personal needs, the restriction is lifted);
activities are carried out in the field of extraction and sale of mineral resources;
a citizen acts as someone's agent, works in the interests of other persons under a commission agreement, a contract of agency.

Services for delivering goods and accepting payments for third parties are prohibited, but there is a peculiarity here. If a citizen engaged in delivery and acceptance of payments has a cash register registered by a third party, the special regime is allowed.

On a note! The Ministry of Finance plans to introduce a tax on self-employed people from July 1, 2021 throughout Russia. Information about this is available on the official website of the Ministry.

How it works?

Everything is set up as simply as possible. First, a person downloads the application and registers in it as a self-employed person. At the end of registration, he receives a message that he has successfully become self-employed. He performs all other actions through the “My Tax” application. You don't need to go anywhere or do anything complicated. No applications, queues or visits to the tax office. Just an application in which you can now mark your income and pay taxes.

The process is also simple:

a self-employed person provides a service (records a song, makes soap, etc.);
transfers it to the buyer;
receives money for it;
marks a new sale in the application, indicates the amount of proceeds and saves;
a record appears that the sale was successful;
a check is opened that can be sent online to a legal entity or individual if necessary.

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What does this give?

Creating a self-employed regime has many advantages:

Specialists will be able to legally provide services to the public and companies without fear. Now they will not be afraid that the tax office will audit them and impose many fines.
The activity will become legal, you can officially work with companies and legal entities. There will be no problems with paperwork when working with legal entities.
Entrepreneurs will be able to reduce their tax burden and pay less without closing their individual entrepreneurs. They will be able to work in the same mode, but with significantly lower mandatory payments.

In addition, many companies are more willing to work with self-employed people, because in this case their tax burden is reduced. It is more profitable and easier for them to work with the self-employed.

A self-employed person does not need a current account, does not have to provide a tax return, does not require a cash register, and can be combined with his main job.

Who can become?

Any person who operates on the territory of the Russian Federation can become a self-employed citizen. Foreign citizens from Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Armenia can also become self-employed if they have clients in Russia. They are allowed to change the tax regime under the same conditions as citizens of the Russian Federation.

Starting from October 2021, you can become self-employed in any region of the country.

From what age

Any citizen over the age of 18 and between the ages of 14 and 18 can become self-employed if he fulfills one of the conditions and is not an individual entrepreneur.

Who can become self-employed at 14-18 years old:

who entered into marriage and became legally capable as a result;
parents or guardians have given written consent to this;
the court or guardianship authorities recognized him as fully capable in accordance with the established procedure.

How to accept payments?

A self-employed person can accept payments to any card he has. You can even receive money from clients on the card where your salary from your main job comes.

Many banks currently offer to open an account with them in order to be self-employed. These are actually unrelated concepts. A current account will be required when working with certain companies. If an individual plans to simply give violin lessons or sell homemade cakes to ordinary citizens, then he will not need such an account.

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Who can self-employed citizens work with?

Regardless of who the self-employed person works with, he will not need a cash register to carry out his activities, and payments can be accepted either by card or in cash. Taxpayer payers have the right to cooperate with individuals, individual entrepreneurs, legal entities and the same self-employed. For your convenience, we have analyzed in detail how self-employed citizens work in each of these categories.

Individual

To work with individuals, you only need the application. Self-employed people need to indicate the name of the product or service, the amount of the transaction and the client’s status - an individual. Based on the last two parameters, the application will calculate the amount of tax due next month.

There is no need to draw up an agreement with individuals and exchange certificates of completed work. You provide a service or sell a product, receive money from the client and give 4% of the transaction amount to the treasury - that’s all. The check is generated automatically. You can send it to the client on a mobile phone or email, print it out and hand it over personally, or have the QR code scanned.

Self-employed

A self-employed person can provide services to a self-employed person. Cooperation follows the same principle as with individuals. There is no need to draw up a contract and a report on the work performed; you can agree orally. As when working with individuals, in the “My Tax” application you should indicate the type of service and the amount of payment. Self-employed people exchange checks using the same principle.

IP

The law on self-employed people does not stipulate the procedure for concluding a transaction between a professional income tax payer and an individual entrepreneur or legal entity. Representatives of the Federal Tax Service advise in this case to work under a GPC agreement. You can get by with verbal agreements, but then the risks increase.

Firstly , there is no written contract - no obligations. The work may be done poorly or not on time. The self-employed also take risks: they may simply not get paid. Therefore, a written contract is a precaution for both parties.

Secondly , a properly executed agreement with a self-employed person minimizes tax risks. It is better to draw up a contract, but if it is drawn up incorrectly, the Federal Tax Service may see in it signs of an employment contract. This threatens the entrepreneur with a fine under Art. 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, as well as an order for the payment of contributions and personal income tax, as for an employee.

When drawing up a contract, pay attention to the wording of some points:

Subject of the agreement. We write “rendering .
Deadlines. We indicate a limited period, not the start date of work.
Payment order. Payment is made upon completion of work, and not on certain dates of the month.

The body of the agreement can be drawn up according to the standard GPC agreement template. But given the specifics of the NAP, additional information needs to be added to it:

A self-employed person is a payer of professional income tax.
Under this agreement, the individual entrepreneur is exempt from the status of a tax agent.
Require the self-employed to write a check after the work is completed.
Indicate that if his status is revoked, the self-employed must notify the client within a certain period of time.

After concluding an agreement and completing work under it, the customer (IP) signs the act and makes payment in a convenient way - by transfer to a card or current account, in cash - and the self-employed person enters the transaction data into the application and writes a check. In addition to information about the name of the service and the amount of the transaction, when working with an individual entrepreneur, you need to enter the company name and TIN.

Legal entity

A self-employed person works with legal entities on the same principle as with individual entrepreneurs. You draw up an agreement, provide a service, sign a certificate of completion, receive payment, record the transaction in the application and write a check.

How to become self-employed?

Let's figure out how to become self-employed through State Services and provide step-by-step instructions.

This is the easiest way. After the “My Tax” application is installed on your mobile phone, you need to log in to it. A window will open in which you need to select a registration and authorization method. Through the State Services portal this is the last, but the fastest and easiest among them.

You just need to click on it. Then you will need to enter the standard data that is usually entered when entering the State Services website - SNILS or mobile phone number and password.

From now on, registration will be semi-automatic. After confirming your personal data, mobile phone number and agreeing to the terms of registration, the citizen will be immediately registered as self-employed.

Data confirmation

If you register using a Russian passport, you will need to take a photo of the passport and yourself next to it. What documents are needed - passport, TIN, SNILS. Usually no other documents are required.

Personal Area

Application registration procedure

Before registering as self-employed, you need to download the appropriate application. The easiest way is to use the specially created “My Tax” product, available on Google Play and the App Store. The program works on tablets, computers, smartphones provided that you are connected to the Internet.

Next you need:

Go through verification - confirm your personal data through the taxpayer’s account or manually enter your passport details.
Gain access to your account through an account on the website of the Federal Tax Service or State Services.
Specify your password and INN.
When registering using your passport data, provide your phone number.
Receive the security code at the specified number and indicate it in the form.
Select your region of work.
Scan your passport with photo using the application.
Check the recognition results with real data, and if there are errors, repeat the procedure.
Click the confirm button if the information is displayed correctly.

After this, you need to take a photo so that your face is clearly visible. The next step will be confirmation of registration or refusal to continue the process.

According to the instructions of the Federal Tax Service, you must select a type of activity from 105 proposed options. You are only allowed to choose one of them. This completes the registration procedure, and the application can be used to record payments and transfer information to tax authorities. It is possible to set up access using facial identification or fingerprint, this depends on the functionality of the phone and does not affect the operation of the program in any way.

Important! A day after receiving the application, tax authorities send a notification through the same application confirming registration. Refusal to register is possible if false information is revealed or a citizen lacks the right to use a special regime.

After registration, you may receive a notification that the self-employed person has been granted test access. It will be valid during the period of verification of received data by tax authorities, but no more than six days. At the same time, the entrepreneur can generate checks and send them to customers.

Advantages and disadvantages

Since the advent of the new tax regime, it has had supporters and opponents, because everything has negative sides. Let's take a closer look at the features of this method of work.

What are the advantages of self-employment:

No mandatory payments. If a citizen has no income, then he will not have to pay any taxes.
Easy to combine with your main job.
No need for a cash register. You don’t have to buy an online cash register, you don’t need to process checks through special programs. Everything is processed through the “My Tax” application.
There is no need to submit a tax return to the inspection authorities. Anything they want to check can be viewed through the app.
There is no need to visit the tax office, sit in lines, wait for an appointment, or take time off from work. Everything is done online.
Speed. The entire registration takes only 20 minutes.
You can come out of the shadows and officially work. There is no risk that the tax office will ask you to present documents confirming your income.
Tax conditions should not change for the next 10 years. This is enshrined in law as a guarantee.
Self-employment income is official and verified. A self-employed person can get a loan, a loan or a credit card. Not all banks offer this yet, but their list is constantly being updated with new credit institutions.

But this tax regime also has negative sides:

You'll have to pay taxes. This is only 4% for working with individuals and 6% for working with legal entities, but not everyone wants to pay even that much.
Income should not exceed 2.4 million rubles per year or 200 thousand rubles per month. Some masters receive more money; this mode is not available to them.
Not all types of activities fall under self-employment. If a citizen is going to sell excisable goods, resell them or extract minerals, then he cannot become self-employed.
You can't have employees. Only one citizen who works for himself can be self-employed. As soon as he has subordinates, he will have to open an individual entrepreneur.

When and how to pay taxes

The Federal Tax Service notifies self-employed citizens in the My Tax application or web account about the need to pay taxes no later than the 12th day of the month following the expired tax period. The NPD payer must pay the accrued amount by the 25th. That is, a self-employed person has almost 2 weeks to sort out the payment of taxes.

If a self-employed person temporarily did not work, that is, did not have any income, he does not need to pay taxes. If the income is less than 100 rubles, then the tax amount is transferred to the next period. There are no mandatory contributions to the NAP. There is also no need to submit reports. All data is transmitted to the Federal Tax Service through the application.

There is no need to calculate anything manually - the application calculates the amount of tax payable automatically for each recorded transaction. You can pay taxes in one click, just log in to the application or enter the “My Tax” web account.

Upon registration, each self-employed person receives a bonus (tax deduction) - 10,000 ₽. It can be used to reduce the amount of calculated tax. Until the deduction ends, the self-employed pays a reduced tax rate: 4% on transactions with legal entities, 3% on transactions with individuals. The application performs all calculations automatically.

Example: Ivan is engaged in website promotion. Customers are legal entities only. A tax deduction is essentially a tax discount. For transactions with legal entities, its size is 2% of income. In a month, Ivan earned 60,000 rubles. He must pay 3,600 ₽ tax (6% of income). Tax deduction - 2% of income will be 1,200 rubles. Taking into account this deduction, Ivan will pay only 2,400 rubles instead of 3,600 rubles. You can use this deduction until the total discount amount reaches RUB 10,000.

The deduction is given only 1 time. That is, if a citizen has already used it and then deregistered, the deduction will not be provided upon new registration.

Fines for non-payment of taxes

If a self-employed person provides a service and receives payment for it, but does not enter data into the application, the tax office will fine him if he finds out about this. According to Art. 129 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the first fine will be 20% of the transaction amount. If you get caught again within 6 months, you will have to pay 100%.

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