Should an individual entrepreneur without employees take the SZV-M?

Individual entrepreneur without employees: SZV-M

Any businessman has the right to run his own business or hire hired personnel. The law allows the conclusion of both labor and civil agreements with such persons.

The law does not establish that an individual entrepreneur without employees must pass the SZV-M. This rule also applies in 2021. There are two reasons for this:

a businessman has no employees, as well as performers, contractors, etc.;
the merchant is not registered as an insurer in the Pension Fund system.

If the above conditions are simultaneously met, the SZV-M form for individual entrepreneurs without employees loses all meaning, since there is no one to show in it.

The issue of zero SZV-M for individual entrepreneurs who conduct business on their own is resolved by itself. Pension Fund employees do not need empty forms of this report that do not contain any useful information. Thus, for individual entrepreneurs, zero SZV-M in 2021 is a closed question.

There is no need to submit a zero individual entrepreneur report only for yourself!

Filling out the report

It is not difficult to generate reports; a sample can be found on the website of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation.
The main thing is to have all the information about your employees. Data for the report:

We recommend you study! Follow the link:

In what form should an individual entrepreneur submit 6 personal income taxes and is a report needed if there are no employees?

Full name of the entrepreneur, TIN, registration number in the Pension Fund.
Period and type of report.
Information about the employee: full name, tax identification number, insurance number.

Data on the period of work or salary are not indicated. The report includes information about all employees who worked under an employment or civil contract for at least 1 day.

There are three types of report:

original. It is submitted initially and if the submitted report does not pass the format and logical control, the corrected report will also be the original one;
complementary This type of reporting must be submitted if a businessman discovers an error in a previously submitted form. The supplementary report includes information only about employees for whom erroneous information was submitted.
canceling. Submission of this form is necessary if an employee is included in the initial report by mistake.

The legislation does not provide for the submission of SZV M for individual entrepreneurs without employees, so there is no need to submit zero reports.

If an entrepreneur was registered with the Pension Fund as an insurer, but then fired all his employees, in this case, does an individual entrepreneur without employees need to submit a zero SZV M? According to the law, a businessman is exempt from such obligation, and he also does not submit the form for himself.

Individual entrepreneur with employees: SZV-M

If you have hired personnel (even just one person), whether you need to take the SZV-M IP is beyond doubt. Of course yes. In this case, a businessman becomes an insured when:

there are employees under an employment contract;
and/or makes payments and rewards under civil agreements.

Please note: previously it was necessary to independently register with extra-budgetary funds as an employer-insurer. The law gave 30 calendar days for this from the date of conclusion of the individual entrepreneur agreement with the first of the hired employees. Which automatically gives an understanding of whether individual entrepreneurs submit the SZV-M form. But since 2017 the rules have changed. During state registration, the relevant tax office will itself report to the Pension Fund the data on the businessman from the Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs (USRIP) within three working days (new edition of Article 11 of the Law on OPS No. 167-FZ).

We found out whether IP SZV-M is accepted. Now let's talk about filling out this report.

It depends only on the existence of concluded labor and civil law agreements whether individual entrepreneurs must take the SZV-M. Whether payments are made for them, whether duties are fulfilled, whether the individual entrepreneur conducts business at all does not matter.

Who can sign and submit a report for an individual entrepreneur

Is an individual entrepreneur always obliged to sign the report himself and personally submit it to the Pension Fund of Russia? No, not at all necessary. An individual entrepreneur has the right to submit reports through a representative. However, the powers must be formalized by a notarized power of attorney (Part 9, Article 5.1 of Federal Law No. 212-FZ of July 24, 2009).

On the basis of a notarized power of attorney, an individual entrepreneur has the right to transfer any powers related to the conduct of business activities, both in full and in some part. Thus, on the basis of a power of attorney, an entrepreneur has the right to transfer to another person (for example, an accountant) the right to represent his interests in certain state matters. institutions (tax authorities, foundations, etc.). Based on this power of attorney, the accountant has the right to submit and sign all reporting forms. The Pension Fund and the SZV-M form are no exception. That is, the entrepreneur’s representative has the right, on the basis of a notarized power of attorney, to sign and submit reports (including the monthly SZV-M form) to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation.

How to fill out SZV-M for individual entrepreneurs in 2021

According to our information, the sample for filling out the SZV-M form for individual entrepreneurs will not undergo major changes in 2021. The form and rules remain the same. It is only necessary to take into account some features of the individual entrepreneur status.

So, it should be noted that it is the entrepreneur who submits the report. For this:

in the column “Name (short)” you must remember to make a note - “IP”;
in the column about the position - indicate that the report is signed by the individual entrepreneur.

All hired personnel of the individual entrepreneur are listed in the fourth section of the report. At the same time, there is no need to include yourself in SZV-M, since the individual entrepreneur does not enter into an employment contract with himself! Otherwise, there are no fundamental features of filling out an individual entrepreneur’s report.

For more information about this, see the article “SZV-M: filling out information about the insured persons.”

Here is a sample of a completed report.

Below is a sample of filling out the SZV-M for individual entrepreneurs.

SZV-TD: does the individual entrepreneur submit it and in what time frame?

In connection with the transition to electronic work books, Law No. 436-FZ of December 16, 2019, a new form of reporting to the Pension Fund - SZV-TD - was introduced in January 2021. The obligation to provide it monthly falls on all employers, which is also enshrined in Article 66.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

The regulatory documents indicate that all insurers are required to submit the new SZV-TD form for all registered persons working under employment contracts, including part-time workers and remote employees (clause 1.4 of the Procedure for filling out the SZV-TD form, approved by Resolution of the Board of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation No. 730p dated 25.12 .2019). However, from this wording it is still not clear to employers whether individual entrepreneurs need to pass the SZV-TD, or whether this applies only to organizations.

According to paragraph 1 of Art. 9 of the Law on Personal Accounting No. 27-FZ of April 1, 1996, insurers (employers) are required to provide the Pension Fund with information about the insured persons working for them. The SZV-TD form is one of the reporting options that includes information about employees and their work activities. However, the law does not provide for the division of employers into legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. Consequently, this responsibility is assigned by default to all employers without exception, regardless of the organizational form: both companies and individual entrepreneurs.

The law does not provide for separate deadlines or reporting forms for individual entrepreneurs. The report is submitted by all policyholders on a single form and within the same approved time frame. Thus, for February 2020, you must report before 03/16/2020 inclusive, for March - no later than 04/15/2020.

The delivery format for all policyholders is also common and depends on the number of employees. With a workforce of up to 24 people (inclusive), the report can be prepared in paper form, with a workforce of 25 or more employees - only in electronic form, signed with an enhanced qualified digital signature (clause 1.9, clause 1.12 of the Procedure for filling out the form).

Where and in what form to take SZV-M in 2020

Form SZV-M is submitted to the territorial body of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation in which the policyholder is registered (Clause 1, Article 11 of Law No. 27-FZ). At the same time, each branch separately submits information about employees and persons who perform work (provide services) under civil contracts

Please note that when filling out the document, the TIN of the main company is indicated, and the checkpoint of the separate division

According to paragraph 2 of Art. 8 No. 27-FZ, a company with less than 25 insured persons may provide reporting in the form of documents in writing (on paper). The rest are required to submit reports electronically. In 2021, the Pension Fund will fine those organizations that do not comply with the format required by law for submitting reports by 1,000 rubles. Below are instructions for filling out the form.

You can fill out a monthly report quickly and free of charge in the special program “PU Documents 6”. It is available for download on the official website of the Pension Fund in the “Free programs for employers” section.

You can also fill out a report in online services on the websites of accounting software developers - My Business, Kontur, Nebo and others. Some sites allow you to do this freely, but usually the services require a fee (up to 1000 rubles).

How to submit the form

For individual entrepreneurs

If there is neither an insured nor insured persons, then the need for reporting on SZV M disappears by itself. This often occurs among individuals who have issued . There are no employees (if there were no hired employees under contracts in the reporting month), and an individual entrepreneur is not required to enter into a work contract with himself. Accordingly, there is no need to submit a report.

For legal entities

As for the reporting form, everything is clear, but what to do with where the manager (director) is? Here the PF opinion differs. If until 2021 everyone was required to submit this form without exception (letter No. 08-22-6356 dated May 6, 2021), then starting in 2017, an exception was made regarding the conclusion or non-conclusion (letter with explanations from the Pension Fund No. LCH- 08-19\\10581).
And so, if a newly opened enterprise has not started its work, the staff has not been recruited, but the founders have concluded a TD with the general director of the enterprise (if this is an appointed position, and not the only founder), then the company is obliged to submit such reports indicating all the data on one employee – the general director.
And in cases where an individual has registered his activities not as an individual entrepreneur, but is a director and founder in one person (having no staff, and accordingly no one has entered into a trade agreement with him either), the obligation to submit the SZV M form is eliminated.
The latest letter from the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation explains precisely the situation when the manager is not just an employee of this enterprise, namely, a report is submitted to employees who have concluded TD, GPC and other agreements. If the director has assigned these responsibilities to himself, without concluding a TD, then he is not included in the SZV M form.

Instructions for filling out section III of the SZV-M report

In section 3, you must indicate the type code of the transmitted report. It can take 3 values:

“output” - the original form that the enterprise submits for the specified reporting period for the first time;
“additional” is a complementary form. This code must be specified if the original report has already been submitted, but it needs to be corrected. For example, a new employee appeared or incorrect data was submitted for him;
“cancel” is a canceling form. This code should be used if any employees need to be completely excluded from the original report submitted. For example, the report contains data on an employee who quit and no longer worked in the current period.

Zero report on the sole founder - general director

For an organization whose founder is the general director as a single person, the presence/absence of an agreement with him does not matter. According to clarification No. 08-22/6356, submission of SZV-M with it to the Pension Fund is mandatory.

But there is still a controversial situation: after all, when specifying the founding director in SZV-M, it is necessary to simultaneously reflect information about his experience in the calculation of insurance premiums.

In July 2021, additional clarifications from the Pension Fund appeared on whether zero reporting is submitted to SZV-M for the general director. According to them, if a company, for certain circumstances, does not conduct financial and economic activities, there is no need to submit a zero SZV-M to the general director without an agreement.

As was said, the question of whether the “Information about insured persons” section can be left blank did not have a clear answer for a long time. Companies still submitted a zero SZV-M, which reflected information only about the general director.

According to the letter of the Ministry of Labor dated July 7, 2021 No. 21-3/10/B-4587, which was signed by Deputy Minister A.N. Prudov, officials considered the situation when the general director does not enter into an employment contract with the organization and does not receive income.

Based on these explanations, we can conclude: when the general director - who is also the founder and the only employee - did not sign an employment contract with the enterprise and did not receive cash payments, the organization does not file reports on the insured persons.

The central office of the Pension Fund responded to the position of the Ministry of Labor and changed its mind. According to the PFR letter No. LCh-08-26/9856 dated July 13, 2016, in such situations the SZV-M report does not need to be submitted.

In connection with the change in position, the Pension Fund sent corresponding recommendations to its territorial divisions. Some of the branches notified legal entities and individual entrepreneurs of the change in the position of the Pension Fund.

Based on the latest clarifications, policyholders are exempt from paying precisely zero bills. This follows from the letter of the Pension Fund of July 13, 2016 No. LCH-08-26/9856. However, many accountants prefer to play it safe and submit this SZV-M form.

Also see “Zero SZV-M: is it necessary to submit it and how to fill it out.”

Mandatory contributions

While a businessman has the status of an active entrepreneur and works without hiring hired labor, he must pay mandatory contributions for his old age and health insurance (OPS and compulsory medical insurance) at the end of the year. This applies to all categories of self-employed citizens, even those who have already retired.

The amount of mandatory insurance premiums is also calculated depending on the size of the minimum wage and is fixed for all payers as a single amount. This means that all entrepreneurs, regardless of the chosen tax regime, whether they received income over the past year or suffered losses, must pay the same amount for themselves. If a businessman has also hired an employee, then he separately calculates and pays the amount for himself and for him.

The fixed amount of contributions for oneself in 2018-2020 is regulated by Art. 430 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. The following values are set for 2021:

26,545 rubles for OPS, if the individual entrepreneur earned less than 300 thousand rubles;
an additional increase to the fixed amount of 26,545 rubles for OPS in the form of 1 percent of income that exceeded the threshold of 300 thousand rubles;
5840 rubles for compulsory medical insurance, regardless of income.

In accordance with paragraph 7 of Art. 430 of the Tax Code, on the basis of an application, payers can be exempted from fixed contributions for valid reasons. Circumstances that exempt you from payments for a certain period include:

being in compulsory military service;
caring for a child up to one and a half years old, for incapacitated children and disabled people or an elderly person over 80 years old;
residence abroad of spouses of diplomats or residence in remote or closed settlements of spouses of military personnel, where it was impossible to engage in activities (exemption period no more than 5 years).

Copies of supporting documents must be attached to the application for exemption from paying insurance premiums for the listed circumstances: birth certificates of children, marriage certificates, disability certificates, military ID cards, certificates from the place of service, etc.

Common mistakes when filling out SZV-M

It should be	How to fix
There is no information about the insured person	When filling out the form, you must indicate all employees with whom an employment contract or civil service agreement has been concluded (even if the person worked for only one day). Information must also be submitted if there have been no accruals or payments to the employee at the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, but he has not been fired.	Supplementary reporting is submitted, which indicates those employees who were not reflected in the original form. In the third section we put the form code “ADP”.
There is an extra employee present	The presence of records of redundant employees (for example, fired) is equivalent to false information.	A cancellation form must be provided indicating only the excess employees. In the third section we put the form code “OTMN”.
Incorrect employee tax identification number	Although the absence of the TIN itself when filling out the form will not be an error, nevertheless, if it is indicated, enter it correctly.	Two forms are provided at the same time: a cancellation form - for an employee with an incorrect TIN and, along with it, a supplementary one, in which the correct information is indicated.
Incorrect SNILS of an employee	As with the TIN, the absence of a code is not an error, but incorrect information can result in a fine.	If the report is not accepted, it must be corrected and resubmitted as outgoing. If only correct information is accepted, corrections are provided to employees with errors in a supplementary form.
Incorrect reporting period	You must enter the correct month and year code.	It is necessary to re-submit the form with the status “outgoing”, correctly indicating the reporting period.

Instructions for filling out section IV of the SZV-M report

The last section is presented in the form of a table, which contains a list of employees who have concluded labor contracts at the enterprise in the current period, including GPC agreements. The table consists of four columns:

the first one contains the serial number of the line;
in the second - full name. employee in the nominative case. If the patronymic is missing, it is not indicated;
in the third - SNILS (employee registration number in the Pension Fund of Russia). This is mandatory information;
in the fourth - TIN (employee registration number with the Federal Tax Service). As stated in Resolution of the Board of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation No. 83p, this column is filled in if the policyholder has the necessary information.

You can enter data into the table either in alphabetical order or randomly.

At the end, the report must be signed by the general director or entrepreneur indicating the position and full name. The date of compilation of the form is also indicated here and a stamp is affixed if it is used in the company. Since the SZV-M form does not provide for the possibility of signing the report by a representative of the policyholder, it must be submitted personally either by the director of the organization or by the entrepreneur.

Reporting to the Pension Fund of Russia SZV-M: zero report and when you can not submit SZV-M

At the end of last 2015, the indexation of pensions for working pensioners was cancelled.

For the convenience of recording such workers, from April 2021, all organizations and individual entrepreneurs insured by the Pension Fund must submit monthly reports SZV-M with information about those with whom employment or civil law contracts were concluded, acted, and ended for the reporting period, regardless of whether whether they are retired or not.

Who does the law apply to?

The obligation to provide monthly information to the pension fund department rests with all insurers of persons employed by them, both under an employment contract and under a contract agreement, even if the employee was on leave without pay or was disabled during the specified period.

This is a new form of reporting, so accountants legitimately have the following questions.

May letter No. 08-22/6356 stated that the obligation to provide data is in no way related to payments to employees. The mere fact of the existence of an employment relationship, as a result of which contributions to the pension fund will be calculated from the payment amounts, is an obligation to provide information about the insured to the Pension Fund.

However, the new position of the Pension Fund of Russia was set out in a letter dated July 27, 2016 No. LCH-08-19/10581 “On the provision of reporting.” When concluding an employment contract, a report on the insured person must be submitted regardless of the accrual and payment of payments for the reporting period. If the agreement is of a civil nature, then the person should be included in the reporting only when payments are made to him.

Previously, the Pension Fund formed its response based on the Federal Law “On Compulsory Pension Insurance in the Russian Federation,” in which the heads of organizations, who are its only members, are classified as insured persons.

Currently, you can refer to the clarification in the above letter dated July 27 No. LCH-08-19/10581 and not provide any reporting if there are no employees and an employment contract has not been concluded with the director. There is also no need to submit zero reporting.

Do I need to take the SZV-M as an individual entrepreneur?

If an entrepreneur has an employment relationship with any individual, then the individual entrepreneur is required to fill out a form and submit it to the Pension Fund. If an entrepreneur works alone, then he pays fixed contributions for himself and all information about him is already available in the fund. An individual entrepreneur does not have to submit information about himself using the SZV-M form.

How to fill out the form

The developed form is easy to fill out and has four sections with explanations, so there is no separate regulation for filling it out.

The first section contains all information about the policyholder: his registration number in the Pension Fund, the abbreviated name of the company or the full name of the entrepreneur, INN, KPP received when registering the company.
The second section contains data about the reporting period indicating the month and year code.
The third section provides for the possibility of changing previously provided information: if the form for the month is submitted for the first time, then it is indicated that it is the original “output”; if you need to convey any information to those already submitted, then this is an additional “additional” form; incorrect information is deleted with the help of o.
The fourth block contains the actual information about the insured employees, where you need to indicate the serial number, last name, first name, patronymic in the nominative case, SNILS, which is mandatory, and his TIN, if the employer has one.

The completed form is signed by the manager and affixed with a seal, if one is officially available. In fact, in the reporting you only need to indicate the details of the policyholder and list the employees with their SNILS. However, this must be done correctly, since for incomplete and unreliable information there is a fine of 500 rubles for each insured person.

In what form should reporting be presented?

If there are fewer than 25 employees for whom you need to report to the pension fund, then the data can be provided:

in paper form - in person to the local branch of the fund, through a representative or by mail;
in electronic form - for which you need to have software and an agreement with the Pension Fund on electronic document management.

In cases where there are 25 or more insured persons, reporting must be submitted only in electronic format. Passing the SZV-M electronically is much easier and more convenient. This can be done through our company, as we provide electronic reporting services.

The information submitted by the policyholder is checked by the pension fund programs and if an error is found, the report is returned for revision. If the report has passed the verification, a protocol of its acceptance is sent.

What happened to the reporting for April 2016

During the April reporting campaign, some divisions of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation sent “memos” to policyholders not conducting business, which required the submission of “zero” SZV-M (without indicating the list of insured persons).

Pension Fund divisions from other regions, on the contrary, assured that there could be no zero SZV-M and proposed to include at least one founding general director in the report (even if he does not receive payments subject to contributions).

As a result of this kind of recommendations based on the results of the April reporting campaign, three situations are most common among policyholders:

A zero SZV-M is presented (without a list of insured persons).
Rented from SZV-M with one founding director who does not receive any payments.
SZV-M is not represented at all, since the policyholder considered that there is no need to submit information for one director (since there is no employment contract with him).

But who did the right thing?