Tax amnesty 2021: whose debts will be forgiven?

Tax write-off for individual entrepreneurs due to coronavirus

Before we talk about debt write-off, we’ll tell you what taxes some individual entrepreneurs may not pay at all in 2021.
This is a support measure introduced due to the fact that many individual entrepreneurs, like other business representatives, were unable to carry out their activities due to the introduction of a high alert regime in the regions. Entrepreneurs working in areas affected by the spread of coronavirus infection are exempt from paying the following taxes (see Article 2 of the Law “On Amendments...” dated 06/08/2020 No. 172-FZ):

• Personal income tax – in terms of the advance payment calculated for 6 months of 2020, reduced by the amount of the advance payment for the 1st quarter;
• STS - also in terms of the advance payment for the half-year, reduced by the amount of the advance payment for the 1st quarter;
• UTII - regarding tax for the 2nd quarter of 2020;
• transport tax – in terms of tax and advance payments for the period of ownership of the vehicle from 01.04. until 06/30/2020;
• property tax for individuals – regarding the tax for the period of ownership of the property from 01.04. until 06/30/2020.

Note! When calculating tax under the patent taxation system, days falling in April–June 2021 are excluded from the number of days of the period for which the patent was issued.

Legal basis

The write-off of tax debts in 2021 is ensured by >FZ No. 436 dated December 28, 2017. Its Art. directly relates to tax write-offs. 6, 7, 11, 12. The law was adopted according to the corresponding presidential order, which became one of the results of the annual press conference of the head of state, which took place on December 14, 2017. The Tax Debt Relief Act 2021 was passed in a very short time frame. With certain exceptions, for example Art. 6, 7, 11, it started working already on December 29, 2017. The exceptions started working exactly a month later.

Procedures for writing off tax debts. Tax amnesty: debts to the Pension Fund can also be written off

Note! There are 2 procedures for writing off tax debts from individuals and individual entrepreneurs (IP):

• General - according to Art. 59 Tax Code.
• Special - in accordance with separate legislative acts that apply to both taxes and contributions paid to the Pension Fund of Russia (Pension Fund of Russia). In particular, writing off tax debts of individual entrepreneurs and to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation can also be carried out within the framework of a tax amnesty, under which tax debts are being written off starting from 2021 in accordance with the provisions of the Law “On Amendments...” dated December 28, 2017 No. 436-FZ (hereinafter - Law No. 436-FZ).

Important! Debt write-off is carried out by the tax authority independently, as per Art. 59 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation (see the Procedure for writing off arrears..., approved by order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated April 2, 2019 N ММВ-7-8/ [email protected] , hereinafter referred to as the Procedure), and in accordance with the tax amnesty procedure (the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation reported this in information published on the department's website).

However, contacting the tax authority may be necessary in a situation where, due to a technical error or for other reasons, a timely write-off was not carried out. As a rule, a taxpayer discovers this by seeing information about the existence of a debt on the bailiffs’ website or by receiving a demand for payment of taxes with accrued penalties. In one of these situations, or to prevent them, it is advisable to independently contact the inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation with a statement.

Will individual entrepreneurs forgive debts on insurance premiums for injuries, as well as excise taxes and mineral extraction tax?

The tax amnesty for individual entrepreneurs does not include debt on excise taxes, mineral extraction tax and taxes payable when moving goods across the border.

Legislators also did not include insurance premiums for injuries on the list of amnestied debts. Only contributions accrued in accordance with the Law “On Insurance Contributions...” dated July 24, 2009 No. 212-FZ (currently not in force) are subject to write-off. Contributions paid by insurers as part of insurance against industrial accidents and occupational diseases (“injuries”) are regulated by another law - “On compulsory social insurance...” dated July 24, 1998 No. 125-FZ.

Nevertheless, the individual entrepreneur was luckier than others. Among the debts subject to amnesty are both overdue tax obligations and contributions, as well as penalties and fines accrued on these amounts. Companies and private practitioners are less fortunate - they cannot count on having their tax debts written off.

If OKVED IP or LLC falls into the list of affected activities, then all taxes and contributions for the second quarter of 2020 will be written off, with some exceptions. For the list of debited payments, see the typical situation from ConsultantPlus. If you do not have access to the K+ system, get a trial online access for free.

Sample application for writing off an individual's transport tax debt

Note! The procedure does not provide for the possibility of initiating a procedure for declaring a debt uncollectible on the part of the taxpayer, however, the right to contact the tax authority with an application for compliance with the requirements of tax legislation is enshrined in subparagraph. 10 p. 1 art. 21 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Our example focuses on transport tax, since one of the most common situations is the tax authority issuing a requirement to pay this tax (at the same time, there are also frequent cases of erroneous accrual of debt due to late receipt of information from the traffic police or due to a technical error).

A sample letter to the tax authority can be downloaded from the link: sample application for writing off tax debt.

In this case, the regulatory justification for writing off transport tax debt from an individual was the court’s refusal to collect (subclause 4, clause 1, article 59 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

What are the terms and procedure for writing off bad tax debts?

Note! Deadlines for writing off tax debts Art. 59 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation does not establish; some procedural deadlines are provided for by the rules of the Procedure:

• 5 workers days are allotted for issuing a certificate of arrears in accordance with Appendix 1 to the Procedure if there are grounds provided for in Art. 59 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation (clause 3 of the Procedure);
• 1 worker day - to make a decision on recognizing arrears and debts for taxes, penalties and fines as hopeless for collection and writing off in the form established by Appendix 1 to the Procedure (clause 5 of the Procedure).

The procedure described in the Procedure ends here. Further enforcement of the adopted decision, in particular the timing of making changes to the taxpayer’s card, is not regulated.

Important! Was the debt collected, although it was subject to write-off? Do not despair, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation takes the side of the taxpayer.

Let us consider the grounds upon which the tax authority is obliged to carry out the debt write-off procedure.

NUANCES OF TAX AMNESTY FOR INDIVIDUAL ENTREPRENEURS

If, for example, as of January 1, 2019, an entrepreneur voluntarily paid off arrears, penalties and fines on taxes and contributions for periods subject to tax amnesty, then the law does not provide for a refund of funds from the Federal Tax Service.

This puts law-abiding taxpayers at a disadvantage compared to those who have not repaid their debt by 2019. This conclusion can be drawn from the letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated April 25, 2018 No. 03-15-05/28136. It directly states that the provisions of Federal Law No. 436-FZ do not apply to paid, collected and written off arrears, penalties and fines related to the amnestied periods.

As part of the tax amnesty, entrepreneurs must write off even those debts for which documents have already been sent to the courts, banks, and bailiffs. In accordance with the letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated April 16, 2018 No. KCH-4-8/7146, inspectors must take the following actions in relation to arrears , penalties and fines subject to tax amnesty :

• revoke the order to write off money from the entrepreneur’s commercial account;
• cancel the decision to block the entrepreneur’s bank account;
• withdraw the statement of claim from the courts;
• send the bailiffs information about the cancellation of debt collection.

The following nuance : only those amounts of penalties and fines that were accrued for arrears of taxes and contributions on the date of the amnesty are subject to the tax amnesty. The amounts of penalties and fines accrued for this arrears after the amnesty date must be repaid in 2021.

EXAMPLE 1

As of January 1, 2019, the entrepreneur has an arrears of transport tax in the amount of 20,000 rubles. At the same time, the debt is 10,000 rubles. formed on 01/01/2015. As of 01/01/2019, penalties in the amount of 2,000 rubles were accrued for this arrears, of which 700 rubles were accrued as of 01/01/2015.

As part of the tax amnesty, the entrepreneur will have his debt written off in the amount of 10,000 rubles. and penalties in the amount of 700 rubles.

The remaining amount of tax debt is 10,000 rubles. payable. Also subject to payment is part of the tax penalty, which relates to the period after 01/01/2015, and part of the penalty relating to the written-off debt of 10,000 rubles, but accrued in the period from 01/01/2015 to 01/01/2019. That is, in 2021, the entrepreneur must fully pay off penalties in the amount of 1,300 rubles. (2000 – 700).

The maximum amount of debt on insurance premiums subject to write-off under the tax amnesty is calculated using the formula:

Debt to be written off = 8 × minimum wage × Insurance premium rate × Period of business activity in months before 01/01/2017 + Amount of penalties accrued for the period of late payment of contributions.

For the accuracy of the calculation, it is necessary to take into account that the minimum wage (minimum wage) by law before 01/01/2017 was different: in 2014 - 5554 rubles. per month, in 2015 - 5965 rubles. per month, and in 2021 - 6204 rubles. per month.

EXAMPLE 2

The entrepreneur has an outstanding debt on insurance premiums as of 01/01/2017 in the amount of 378,304 rubles . Of these, 7418 rubles. amounts to a penalty for arrears.

For the period from 01/01/2017 to 01/01/2019, another 4,500 rubles were accrued for this debt. peny. At the same time, the entrepreneur stopped paying insurance premiums from 07/01/2014 and ceased commercial activities from 09/01/2016.

After 01/01/2017, the entrepreneur voluntarily paid off the arrears of insurance premiums in the amount of 50,000 rubles. for periods before 01/01/2017.

Let's calculate the amount of arrears on insurance premiums that can be written off from an entrepreneur as part of a tax amnesty (Table 3).

Grounds for writing off taxes, penalties and fines

The grounds for writing off arrears include (clause 1 of Article 59 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation):

1. A judicial act, in particular a court decision made according to the rules of Chapter. 32 of the CAS of the Russian Federation, on the refusal to satisfy an administrative claim for debt collection (see, for example, the decision of the Dimitrovsky District Court of Kostroma dated December 19, 2017 in case No. 1036/2017) or on recognizing the debt as bad (see the decision of the Chekhov City Court of the Moscow Region dated 01.09.2017 in case No. 2a-3633/2017). More information about how the period for going to court to recover taxes is calculated can be found in the article “What is the statute of limitations for paying taxes?”
2. Declaration of bankruptcy. The procedure is described in the article “Conditions and features of bankruptcy of individuals.”
3. Death.
4. Return of a writ of execution by a bailiff after termination of proceedings due to the impossibility of collection or lack of property from the debtor, if more than 5 years have passed since the debt arose and the amount is insufficient to initiate bankruptcy proceedings or the court has terminated the bankruptcy case.

Loss of individual entrepreneur status does not apply to such grounds.

How and when will debts be written off?

The cancellation of arrears and debts occurs without the participation of the taxpayer, i.e. automatically. Submission of any applications and documents is also not required for this.

The corresponding decision is made by the Federal Tax Service at the place of residence of the individual, the place where his property (transport or real estate) is located. In a free-form decision, the amounts of arrears, debts that are reset to zero, full name, tax identification number will certainly be written down. If the debts are voluntarily liquidated by the taxpayer or collected from him by bailiffs, it will no longer be possible to return them. To stop the ongoing enforcement proceedings for the noted debts (arrears) as of 01/01/2015, it is necessary to take a decision on their write-off from the Federal Tax Service and provide it to the bailiffs.

For individual entrepreneurs, the decision on tax write-offs is also automatic, the only difference with the option for individuals is that it is accepted by the tax authorities at the place of registration of the entrepreneur and indicates the business tax identification number.

Currently, most of the write-offs of individuals’ debts on property taxes and individual entrepreneurs’ debts on taxes from their businesses have already been completed. Work continues to clear debt on insurance premiums and remaining tax debts.

If someone still hasn’t had something reset, remember: there are people working everywhere who can make mistakes. Therefore, contact the relevant Federal Tax Service (at your place of residence, location of property or registration, the latter for individual entrepreneurs) for clarification.
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Is a decision to write off a debt issued to a taxpayer?

Note! The Procedure does not indicate the obligation of the tax authority to notify of the decision made to write off debts or to send a copy of this document to the person in respect of whom it was made. However, sub. 9 clause 1 art. 21 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation establishes the right of the taxpayer to receive copies of decisions of tax authorities, and in sub. 12 clause 1 art. 32 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation specifies that they are issued upon request. In this regard, it is advisable to request a copy of the decision to write off bad tax debts.

Inaction to consider an application for debt forgiveness or failure to issue a copy of the decision can be appealed (Article 137 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). In this case, a mandatory administrative appeal procedure is provided (clause 2 of Article 138 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation): you can go to court only after sending a complaint to a higher tax authority.

In addition to the general procedure, special debt write-off procedures apply in 2021:

• in the form of a tax amnesty;
• and in connection with the transfer of administration of insurance premiums to the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation.

Are debts submitted for collection forgiven?

Individual entrepreneurs have the right to count on the write-off of those debts within the framework of the tax amnesty for which collection procedures have been initiated and interim measures have been taken. It doesn’t matter that the documents on these debts have already been transferred to bailiffs, courts or banks - the debts must still be written off.

The Federal Tax Service issued a special letter on this matter, in which it deciphered the actions of the inspectors (letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated April 16, 2018 No. KCH-4-8/71146). After a decision is made to write off the debts of an individual entrepreneur as part of a tax amnesty, controllers are obliged to:

• revoke the order to write off the debt from the individual entrepreneur’s accounts;
• cancel the decision to suspend transactions on individual entrepreneur accounts;
• inform the bailiffs of the information from the decision made to cancel the decision to collect the tax or notify them of the updated amount of the debt (if the debt is partially written off).

We describe the method of obtaining information about tax debts, the collection of which is at the stage of enforcement proceedings, in the material “How to find out tax debts.”

Debt write-off through tax amnesty

According to Law No. 436-FZ, until 03/01/2018, the following was written off as of 01/01/2015:

• debts on property taxes (transport, property and land) together with penalties - for individuals;
• debts on taxes related to business activities (exceptions - mineral extraction tax, excise taxes, taxes on export-import transactions), as well as penalties and fines - for individual entrepreneurs (including former ones).

Important! A debt was written off that was declared by the taxpayer or identified by the tax authority before January 1, 2015, but was not collected as of December 28, 2017 (decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated November 22, 2018 in case No. A65-26432/2016).

In addition, for individual entrepreneurs, individuals and private practitioners, debts on insurance contributions to the Pension Fund for periods before 01/01/2017 are subject to write-off or partial write-off. The amount by which the amount of debt will be reduced will be determined according to Part 11 of Art. 14 of the Law “On Insurance Premiums...” dated July 24, 2009 No. 212-FZ:

C = 8 × minimum wage × T × H,

where: C is the amount by which the amount of debt will be reduced;

Minimum wage - the amount of the minimum wage in force in the corresponding tax period (indicators can be found in the article “Amount of the minimum wage”);

T—rate of insurance premiums;

N is the number of months of activity.

Information for debt write-off is transferred to the tax authorities by the Pension Fund of Russia. An application from the taxpayer is not required for this.

What tax debts will be written off for individuals in 2021?

According to Art. 12 of Law No. 436-FZ, property tax debts were subject to write-off, these include:

• ownership of a plot of land (land tax);
• real estate tax;
• transport tax.

For what years? Debts that were incurred before January 1, 2015 were written off, after which only fines and penalties that arose due to their failure to pay before January 1, 2021 were written off.

From the official source nalog.ru, the period for writing off property tax debt for individuals ended on March 1, 2021.

In 2021, debts incurred before January 1, 2015, will continue to be written off for individuals (former individual entrepreneurs, lawyers, notaries, etc.) who were previously engaged in entrepreneurial activities or had private practice.

In 2021, there is a possibility of continuing work under the same amnesty if the Federal Tax Service does not have time to write off debts under Law 436-FZ.

Personal income tax debts

Only citizens who have received income, but contributions have not been paid to the budget, can be exempted from personal income tax debt, subject to the following conditions:

• during the period of receiving income from 01/01/2015 to 01/01/2017;
• the organization submitted information on form 2-NDFL about the citizen’s income to the tax office.

Such a situation may arise in the event of writing off a citizen’s debts to other organizations, for example, telecom operators, utility companies, and others. In fact, the person did not receive income, but Form 2-NDFL was submitted and the tax authorities must calculate the tax.

The exemption will not affect personal income tax on income received:

• as payment for labor, work performed, services rendered, etc.;
• material benefit;
• as prizes, winnings and other similar income from lotteries and competitions;
• interest, dividends on deposits and securities;
• in kind.

Tax benefit for land tax for 600 sq. m. for pensioners

Separately, I would like to note that this regulatory act includes an amendment regarding the taxation of pensioners with land tax. Now you won’t have to pay anything for using a plot within 6 acres. If it is larger, then the benefit is provided as follows: we subtract 6 acres from the total area of ​​the plot and, after multiplying by the cadastral value, we obtain the tax base for calculating the land tax.