Can an individual pay taxes for a legal entity?

Is it allowed or not to pay taxes for other people? Is it possible for third parties to pay insurance premiums for an organization or individual entrepreneur? Is it permissible to pay state fees for others? How can third parties fill out payment orders and who to write as the payer? Is the founder or director entitled to pay taxes for his company? Can a husband pay taxes on his wife? The answers to most of these questions were provided by Federal Law No. 401-FZ of November 30, 2016, which introduced rules into the Tax Code of the Russian Federation that taxes, fees and contributions can be paid by third parties. Let's look at the amendments in detail.

Long-awaited changes

Previously, tax legislation obligated taxpayers to pay taxes and fees independently (clause 1 of Article 45 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). However, due to the entry into force of Federal Law No. 401-FZ of November 30, 2016, the situation has changed. This law amended Article 45 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, thanks to which third parties will be able to pay taxes, fees and insurance premiums for organizations, individual entrepreneurs or individuals. However, the amendments will be introduced in stages, namely:

• from November 30, 2021, some persons have the right to pay taxes and fees for others;
• from January 1, 2021, third parties have the right to transfer insurance premiums for others.

Payment of taxes and fees by third parties from November 30, 2021

Federal Law No. 401-FZ dated November 30, 2016 was officially published on the legal information portal on December 30, 2021. From this date, third parties were able to pay taxes and fees for others. This is provided for in paragraph 1 of Article 13 of this law.

From the provisions of the new edition of Article 45 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation it follows that from December 30, 2021, third parties can pay any taxes and fees for others. From the specified date for an organization, individual entrepreneur or individual, you can transfer:

It is worth noting that the Tax Code does not contain any restrictions regarding the circle of persons who have the right to pay taxes and fees for taxpayers. Thus, various options are possible:

• an organization can pay taxes and fees for another organization, individual entrepreneur or individual;
• an individual entrepreneur can transfer taxes and fees for another individual entrepreneur, organization or individual;
• an individual has the right to pay taxes and fees for another individual, organization or individual entrepreneur.

Thanks to these amendments, for example, the founder or director of a company, starting from November 30, 2021, can easily pay taxes and organization fees from his own funds. This may be necessary if, for example, there is not enough money in the account of a legal entity to pay. Previously, third parties did not have the right to fulfill the obligation to pay taxes and fees for the organization (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated February 14, 2013 No. 03-02-08/6).

One pressing problem was also resolved. Some may have encountered a situation where one individual asks another to pay the tax for them, which is specified in the tax payment notice.

Example. November 8, 2021, citizen Ivanova I.A. I received a notification by mail from the Federal Tax Service about the payment of property tax for my apartment. She gave the notice to her son and asked him to pay the tax for her so that she would not have to go to the bank. Until November 30, 2016, her son was not entitled to pay tax for his mother from his own funds. If he had done this and he was listed as a payer in the payment order, then the tax authorities could not recognize the obligation to pay the tax as fulfilled. And the payment would be sent to “unexplained payments.” In turn, Ivanova I.A. an arrears would arise and penalties would be charged. However, from November 30, 2021, there will be no such problem. The son can remit the tax for his mother and not be afraid that the tax will not be considered paid.

Therefore, from November 30, 2021, you can pay taxes and fees for another person, for example, through Sberbank online or from your bank card. There shouldn't be any more problems with this. Also, taxes of an individual from the specified date can be paid from the current account of the individual entrepreneur.

State duty is a fee (333.16 Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Consequently, from November 30, 2021, third parties can pay not only taxes, but also state fees for organizations, individual entrepreneurs and individuals.

Accounting for expenses

Despite the fact that almost three years have passed since the introduction of the norm, there are still ambiguities regarding the procedure for paying taxes for a third party, which have to be clarified with the help of by-laws. One of these clarifications was the letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated October 14, 2021 No. 03-03-06/1/78573. The reason for the appearance of the department’s document was the taxpayer’s question addressed to financiers: is it possible to include in expenses the amounts spent on paying taxes for a third party?

According to the Ministry of Finance, such expenses cannot be taken into account in income tax expenses! The fact is that such expenses cannot be considered as expenses incurred to carry out the activities of the taxpayer himself. The opinion of the Ministry of Finance is justified, because such expenses of an enterprise do not meet the criterion of profit-making, and therefore cannot be included in income tax expenses.

Payment of insurance premiums by third parties from January 1, 2021

Organizations and individual entrepreneurs are required to transfer payments for insurance premiums independently (Part 4, Article 15, Part 2, Article 16 of the Federal Law of September 24, 2009 No. 212-FZ “On Insurance Premiums”). However, this federal law will no longer apply as of January 1, 2021. This is due to the fact that insurance premiums (except for contributions for injuries) are transferred from the Pension Fund to the control of the Federal Tax Service. From January 1, 2017, insurance premiums will be regulated by the provisions of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. See "Insurance premiums from 2021: overview of changes." https://buhguru.com/strahovie-vznosy/strakh-vznosy-2017.html

From January 1, 2021, the provisions of the tax legislation of the Russian Federation will allow third parties to pay insurance premiums for others (except for contributions “for injuries”) - new paragraph 9 of Article 45 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. That is, you can transfer contributions from the moment their administration passes to the tax authorities. From 2021, third parties will be able to transfer the following types of insurance premiums:

Thus, from January 1, 2021, third parties will be able to pay insurance premiums, like taxes and fees, for any organization or individual entrepreneur. So, for example, an individual will be able to pay contributions for any individual entrepreneur.

However, keep in mind that insurance premiums for injuries in 2017 will remain under the control of the Social Insurance Fund and will continue to be regulated by Federal Law No. 125-FZ of July 24, 1998 “On compulsory social insurance against industrial accidents and occupational diseases” " At the same time, based on paragraph 1.1 of Article 22 of this law, policyholders, as before, will have to pay insurance premiums on their own. That is, third parties will not be able to transfer contributions “for injuries”.

Third parties have the right to pay taxes, fees and insurance premiums for others solely on a voluntary basis.

How to transfer payments to third parties

If someone wants to pay taxes, fees or insurance premiums for others, then most likely the question will arise about how to fill out payment orders for such payment. Let me explain.

The tax, fee or insurance premiums will be considered paid on the day when the third party presents to the bank a payment order to transfer money from his current account to the account of the Treasury of Russia. In this case, there must be enough money in the current account for such a payment.

Of course, the payment order must be filled out correctly. Third parties must fill it out in accordance with the Rules approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated November 12, 2013 No. 107n. This follows from the first paragraph of paragraph 7 of Article 45 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. In our opinion, in the payment order the third party must indicate information about himself as the payer. Information about the payer is indicated in fields 8 “Payer”, 60 “TIN” and 102 “KPP”. However, in the purpose of the payment you will need to indicate which organization, individual entrepreneur or individual the payment is being made to. Here is a sample filling.

However, it is worth noting that, perhaps, the payment rules will be adjusted in 2017 and will provide for a special procedure for filling out payment orders by third parties. It is also possible that additional clarification will appear on the procedure for filling out payment orders when making payments to third parties.

How to make a payment for another legal entity

There is no special form or document form defined by law for such calculations. But to make payment for another legal entity, an agreement between the parties will be required. To do this, you will need a letter drawn up by the company whose obligations will be paid. This letter must be sent to the management of the company that will make the payment.

This letter is written in any form, but some writing features still exist. The letter must include:

- name of the debtor;

— name of the payer;

— name of the company/initials of the debtor’s creditor;

— name of the obligation that must be repaid;

— payment parameters, which include the amount, transfer details, purpose.

The organization composing such a letter should ideally describe in detail all the parameters and circumstances. The addressee of the letter must receive the original of such letter.

REFERENCE! The main document for making payment for another person is a letter, a sample of which can be found on the Internet.

Reflection of this process in the tax accounting of the payer

When a company has fulfilled its payment obligations to its counterparty, it needs to reflect this transaction in accounting. First you need to understand whether this will have any consequences in a tax sense for the payer.

If a company is on the OSN, it can sometimes accept VAT offset on the transferred amount. This transaction does not have any other tax consequences.

To offset VAT, the following conditions must be met:

— the company transferred money for its counterparty as an advance payment;

- the contract under which the company and the supplier work must contain an advance payment clause;

- if the supplier issued an invoice and sent the letter mentioned above;

— there is a payment document confirming the transfer of money to the supplier’s creditor.

For a payer who uses the simplified tax system, the accounting for the transaction may differ depending on the nature of the payment. If the payer has a debt to the person for whom he is paying for the goods supplied, the debt will be partially or fully repaid. When the payer takes out a loan at interest from his counterparty, they can be written off as expenses.

Postings in 1s

Payment for another person must be correctly reflected in the accounting records. Postings may vary depending on how the payment made is counted. Often they are like this:

— Dt 60 — Kt 51 — payment for your counterparty;

- Dt 66 (67) - Kt51 - payment for the person from whom the loan was taken;

- Dt 76 - Kt 51 - payment for a company that is not a supplier.

Paying taxes for another legal entity

This can be done not only for obligations arising under the contract with the supplier. Recently, it became possible to transfer tax and other obligatory payments in the same way. More recently, the IRS did not allow this option, so all taxpayers were required to pay their debts themselves. Exceptions were made, but rarely.

This changed when the Internal Revenue Code was amended to repeal this rule. This happened at the end of 2021.

REFERENCE! From now on, you can pay taxes for another person with complete peace of mind.

Who has the right to pay taxes for whom?

Today there are no restrictions on paying taxes for another person.
Any other company or even individual can pay the company's taxes. According to the new rules, it has become possible to avoid sanctions for paying mandatory payments on time. For example, if today is the deadline to pay tax, and the company does not have enough money in its accounts.

More recently, the company would have had to pay interest on late payments. Today, any person, for example, the head of a company, has the right to pay bills.

Filling out a payment order

When filled out, this document has some features, which include:

— the payer field must be filled in with the name of the company making the payment;

— the field “TIN of the payer” and the checkpoint is filled in by entering the details of the company for which the tax is being paid;

— the field “Purpose of payment” is indicated first with the payer’s tax identification number and checkpoint, followed by // and the name of the company for which the payment is made, the name of the tax, type of payment, period, etc.;

— field “101” is filled in with code “01”, which means a legal entity.

What are the restrictions?

It is worth noting that there are some restrictions associated with the transfer of taxes, fees and insurance premiums. They are as follows:

• after payment, a third party does not have the right to demand the return of the amount paid to an organization, individual entrepreneur or individual;
• It will be impossible to clarify the payment of insurance premiums for compulsory pension insurance if the Pension Fund of Russia division manages to record the received amounts in the personal accounts of the insured persons.

Third parties are not required to obtain any authorization to pay taxes, fees or insurance premiums for others.

Tax accounting of third party payments

Let's say a few words about tax accounting of payments received from third parties.

Personal income tax

If, for example, someone pays a tax or fee for an individual, then such a payment will not be considered income of the individual (clause 5 of Article 208 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Accordingly, there will be no need to pay personal income tax on such an amount.

simplified tax system

It is possible that in 2021 a third-party organization, individual entrepreneur or individual will pay his taxes, fees or insurance premiums for the “simplified person”. Will it be possible to take such payments into account when calculating the “simplified” tax? No, starting from 2021, payments from third parties for taxes, fees and contributions cannot be simply attributed to expenses. However, in subparagraph 3 of paragraph 2 of Article 346.17 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, legislators provided that expenses can be recognized after repayment of the resulting debt to a third party. Let us explain the procedure for recognizing such expenses in the table.

Thus, in order for a taxpayer with the object of taxation “income minus expenses” to be able to take into account payments from third parties in expenses from 2021, it will be necessary to return to these persons the amounts they spent on paying taxes, fees and insurance premiums (or debts on them). This is provided for by Federal Law No. 401-FZ of November 30, 2016.

Unified agricultural tax

If taxes or insurance premiums are transferred for the payer of the single agricultural tax, then you should be guided by the updated paragraph 2 of Article 346.5 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation: first, a third party transfers money to the budget, and then the payer of the Unified Agricultural Tax payer reimburses this person for the amount spent. Under such circumstances, taxes and contributions cannot be taken into account in the expenses of the Unified Agricultural Tax payer, but the amount of compensation can be taken into account. The exception is the agricultural tax itself, as well as the VAT that was paid in connection with the issuance of an invoice. Reimbursement of the amount spent on paying these taxes is not included in the costs. These rules are in effect from January 1, 2021.

From November 30, third parties have the right to pay taxes and fees for others and for earlier periods. So, for example, you can pay off arrears incurred in 2014 or 2015. The situation is similar with insurance premiums.

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18.07.2018

Payment of taxes by “another person”: accounting features

This year, a new norm has appeared in the legislation, which allows third parties to fulfill the payer’s obligations. Let's figure out how to reflect this in accounting.

What is the essence of innovation?

Organizations were given the opportunity to pay a tax, fee or duty for the payer, i.e. for a person who is required by law to make these payments to the budget. At the same time, it is impossible to demand a credit or return from the budget of the amount paid for the payer <*>.

This mechanism for paying payments to the budget can be useful, for example, when an organization does not want tax demands to come to its accounts. After all, this often complicates working with the existing finances of the enterprise. In such a situation, by agreement with the creditor, you can transfer funds to pay the taxes of your counterparty <*>.

In this case, it is necessary for the tax authority to determine that the organization is not fulfilling its obligations to pay taxes, but the obligations of another person. For this purpose, in the payment order . Thus, in the field “UNP of a third party” the UNP of the payer for whom the organization pays the tax is entered, and in the field “Purpose of payment” its name is indicated <*>.

How to reflect the payment of taxes for another organization in accounting

Transferring taxes for another organization may not always be a repayment of existing accounts payable. In this regard, in accounting it is advisable to reflect this operation as a debit to account 76 “Settlements with various debtors and creditors” <*>.

Depending on the agreements, the debt of a third party recorded in account 76 may be closed <*>:

- by offset. Such an operation is reflected in the debit of account 60 “Settlements with suppliers and contractors” and the credit of account 76;

- receipt of money to the current account. This operation is carried out on the debit of account 51 “Current accounts” and the credit of account 76.

What is in the accounting of the payer organization?

Repayment of taxes in the payer’s accounting is reflected in the debit of account 68 “Calculations for taxes and fees” <*>. When taxes are paid by another person, he may not be a debtor of the payer organization. Therefore, in our opinion, such an operation should initially be reflected on the credit of account 76. Then, depending on the situation <*>:

- conduct a test. In accounting, this is carried out by recording the debit of account 76 and the credit of account 62 “Settlements with buyers and customers”;

- reflect the repayment of debt to the creditor, for example, by transferring money to him from the current account <*>.

Example

CJSC Alpha (payer) submitted a tax return under the simplified tax system to the tax authority on February 20, 2018. The tax payable amounted to 1800 rubles. On February 22, 2018, the payer’s debt was fully repaid by its counterparty OJSC Beta (another person).

In this case, by agreement between the parties, the debt of Alfa CJSC will be partially repaid by offsetting the receivables of Beta OJSC in the amount of 1,500 rubles. The rest of the debt (300 rubles) was transferred by Alfa CJSC to the settlement account of Beta OJSC on 03/05/2018.

The following entries will be made in the accounting of the payer (Alfa CJSC):

The following entries will be made in the accounting of another person (JSC Beta):