Rumors regularly appear on the Internet that individuals will have to pay tax for transfers from card to card of Sberbank. Many Russian residents actively use this method of transferring funds to relatives and friends, and such messages cause real panic among them. But we need to figure out whether transfers are taxed or not when a person must transfer money to the budget.
Reasons for the tax panic
Rumors that the tax service will charge taxes for card-to-card transfers from Sberbank or other financial institutions appear several times a year. They are spread by people who want to create a sensation, but do not bother to understand the laws.
The main reasons for rumors about taxes for card-to-card transfers from Sberbank and other financial institutions are directly related to legal norms:
- Art. 210 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. List of income for which a tax resident of the Russian Federation must pay taxes.
- Art. 86 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Obligations of banks to provide information to the Federal Tax Service when conducting tax control activities.
- Federal Law No. 422-FZ dated November 27, 2018. An experiment in a number of constituent entities of the Russian Federation is the new tax regime “Professional Income Tax”.
The population becomes somewhat wary when information appears that transfers between Sberbank cards will be taxed. After all, many use them to quickly transfer funds to relatives, return debts to acquaintances and friends, or, conversely, to receive them, and also actively use transfers within Sberbank.
Sberbank, other banks and the Federal Tax Service are actively trying to reassure the population. You have to pay taxes on every transfer of money to a card, and the tax payment procedure is not actually connected with the banking transaction at all.
What happens if you don't pay income tax?
Since the tax payer is an individual, responsibility for non-payment falls mainly on him. An employer may be fined under the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, Article 123, for performing the duties of a tax agent in bad faith. In some cases, the additional accrued tax of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation Article 226 will be taken from him - if he previously withheld it not in full.
But in most cases, it is the individual who will be forced to pay the tax. Additional sanctions are also possible.
Fines
For tax evasion, you can be fined 20% of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation Article 122 of the unpaid amount. And if you can prove that you did it intentionally, the sanctions will be 40%.
For failure to file a tax return, you will be charged 5% of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation Article 119 of the unpaid tax amount for each month of delay, but not less than 1 thousand rubles and no more than 30% of the amount owed.
Penalty
For each day of delay in tax payments, you will have to pay a penalty - 1/300 of the Central Bank refinancing rate. Now it is 0.02%.
Criminal liability
A person who owes more than 900 thousand in three years can face a fine of 100–300 thousand rubles (sometimes income for a period of 18 months to three years), or up to a year of forced labor, or up to six months of arrest, under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation Article 198, or up to a year in prison.
Which transfers are taxable?
Sberbank will not charge tax directly for card-to-card transfers. It is not a fiscal service and does not have the corresponding powers. However, if the money received is the taxpayer’s income, then taxes must be paid.
It is not necessary to transfer tax payments from each deposit to an account in Sberbank (another bank). The taxpayer must take care of paying taxes if he received a transfer for the following reasons:
- for goods sold or services provided;
- for renting real estate, car or other property;
- remuneration for work (in certain cases);
- money prize.
Whether or not the corresponding basis is written in the commentary for the transfer within Sberbank or other banks does not play a special role. What is important is the fact for which the person received the money.
Payment for goods and services
Many people sell various goods through advertisements or provide services. With a single deposit of a small amount, for example, for an old cabinet sold, you usually do not have to report and pay taxes. The person spent money on purchasing this thing and most likely did not have any income.
The situation is different with the regular provision of services and sale of goods. In this case, the person earns and must pay taxes. The standard personal income tax rate is 13%.
If transfers for goods and services are received regularly, then it is often more profitable to register an individual entrepreneur and take advantage of one of the special tax regimes.
In a number of regions, those who sell goods and services can switch to NAP without individual entrepreneur status. At the same time, tax rates will also be more favorable than 13% PFDL.
One of the popular ways for Russians to earn additional income is to rent out real estate. In this case, you also have to pay personal income tax at a rate of 13%. If you live in a number of regions, you can also take advantage of the opportunity to switch to paying NAP.
Financial assistance from loved ones and gifts
Transfers from card to Sberbank card are often used to provide financial support to relatives. In this case, there is no obligation to pay taxes. The situation is similar with gifts received from loved ones. Regardless of the amount received from a relative, there is no need to make tax deductions from it.
If an employment contract is concluded between relatives, then an obligation arises to pay taxes according to the general rules. For example, this situation may arise if the mother is registered as an individual entrepreneur, and her daughter has entered into an employment contract with her.
If a gift is received from a third party (for example, an employer), then there is no need to pay personal income tax, provided that the amount of all such gifts for the year does not exceed 4,000 rubles. In other cases, tax residents of the Russian Federation pay personal income tax at a rate of 13% on the donated amount minus 4,000 rubles.
Debt recovery and compensation
If a friend or acquaintance pays for a paid lunch or repays a debt that was provided without interest, then the taxpayer does not have any income. He does not need to report such a transfer or make tax payments on it.
When lending money (property) at interest, income already appears. In this case, you must report and pay personal income tax at a rate of 13%.
Salary, pension, stipend
Salary is the main type of income for Russian residents; it can also be credited to a Sberbank or other bank card. It is subject to personal income tax at a rate of 13%, the tax is withheld by the employer. Pensions and scholarships, although they are income, are not subject to personal income tax. There is no need to make tax payments when receiving various benefits and other social payments from the state.
Income tax for self-employed
Many Russians earn money by providing various services and selling goods of their own production. In the recent past, if such activities were of a regular nature, it was necessary to register an individual entrepreneur and make all payments to the budget in accordance with the chosen taxation system.
At the end of 2021, the law on NAP was adopted and a professional income tax for the self-employed appeared in a number of regions. You can use it if 4 conditions are met:
- a person provides services or sells goods produced by himself;
- no hired employees are involved;
- The taxpayer's income does not exceed 2.4 million rubles. in year;
- the type of activity of a self-employed person is not included in the list of exceptions (for example, it includes the sale of gold items).
What income is subject to personal income tax?
Tax is paid on income received in cash and in kind. It can be:
- any payment for work - salary, fees, etc.;
- income from the sale of securities and property;
- income from property rental;
- lottery winnings, prizes and gifts from individual entrepreneurs and organizations more than 4 thousand rubles;
- real estate, car or securities received as a gift not from close relatives.
Some income is exempt from personal income tax. First of all, these are various social payments, subsidies and benefits that should improve the financial situation of the recipient, as well as pensions, scholarships, repaid debt, property and shares received as a gift from close relatives or by inheritance. In addition, you do not have to pay tax on income from the sale of an apartment and car that you have owned for more than three years. There is an additional condition for housing: it must be the only one. If you have several apartments, you can sell any of them without taxes after five years of ownership.
Card tax withholding scheme
You can register as a self-employed person through the tax website, a special application from the Federal Tax Service, or through the services of some banks, including Sberbank. There is no requirement to attend an inspection to register. You can receive money for selling goods and services to any card, account, or in cash.
When receiving a transfer for the sale of goods or services, the payer must issue a check on the website in his personal account or through the application. The tax office will independently calculate the required taxes. Information on accruals can be viewed in your personal account or application at the beginning of the next month.
Tax is paid by the 25th day of the month following the reporting month. You can pay it through the online services of Sberbank or any bank. Self-employed people do not submit declarations.
The self-employed may not pay contributions to the Pension Fund and Social Insurance Fund.
Cases and payment procedure
When receiving a salary, the taxpayer himself does not need to worry about transferring it. The employer must withhold personal income tax and send this amount to the budget independently. He will also submit all necessary reports to the tax service.
In the following cases, you must file a declaration and pay the tax yourself:
- operates as an individual entrepreneur, a notary and does not apply special regimes;
- when selling property, regardless of whether the money was received by transfer or other means;
- when receiving income outside the Russian Federation;
- when receiving income from which tax was not withheld (for example, from investments in securities).
The report is submitted by April 30, and payments are transferred to the budget by July 15 of the year following the reporting year.
The service of transferring money by mobile phone number may be complicated
The service of transferring money using a mobile phone number is popular among bank clients, but can now become more complicated. So who will benefit from the innovation, and who will cost a pretty penny?
The answer to this question can be found in the draft amendments to the regulation “On the rules for transferring funds,” which the Central Bank posted for public discussion on the portal of legal acts. This document suggests the ability to request permission for a transaction if the transfer uses an “identifier that allows you to establish a bank account number,” most often this is the mobile phone number to which the bank card is linked.
The Central Bank explained that such amendments will prevent unauthorized transfers of money, which could cause problems for recipients. It is not difficult to assume that such an innovation will be especially relevant for officials: confirmation of receipts to their account will protect them from “frame-ups” and accidentally transferred money, which can attract the attention of law enforcement agencies and be regarded as bribes. It is easier to find out the mobile phone number of a civil servant than the bank details of his account, which is what provocateurs can use.
The regulation “On the rules for transferring funds” does not explain exactly how banks will receive confirmation. SMS messages will probably be considered as evidence. But this service from mobile operators costs money, from 40 kopecks apiece. When multiplied by the number of transactions per day, the banks' costs will turn into multimillion-dollar sums, which they will pass on to customers.
According to Vasily Solodkov, director of the HSE Banking Institute, the main goal of such an initiative is to create a tool for officials to protect themselves from provocations and to further regulate the money transfer market in order to control the leakage of money to offshore companies, financing the opposition and identifying income tax evaders.
Thus, according to the expert, the state is driving itself into the jungle of regulation; regulating transfers of small amounts used by ordinary clients is clearly an excessive measure. Vasily Solodkov warns that with tightening regulatory control, illegal financial transactions will move into the sphere of non-cash payments.
Note that the state has previously proposed measures to combat non-cash payments. For example, prohibiting purchases of large amounts in cash.
It is also worth paying attention to the fact that the Central Bank’s initiative to confirm transactions by the recipient is directly related to another innovation, which gives the tax service the right to track all receipts to the bank accounts of individuals from July 1, 2018.
New amendments to the Tax Code may be directed against, in particular, income tax evaders. Now, all receipts to an individual’s account or card, which the tax authorities consider as income, will be taxed, and before that they will impose a fine for non-payment of tax in the amount of 20% of its amount.
So, in order to prove that the money received is not income, but the repayment of a debt from an acquaintance, you will have to prepare a special reporting document for the tax office. The tax authorities will primarily target self-employed citizens, as well as those who rent out an apartment and receive payments on a card: the Federal Tax Service will definitely be interested in regular transfers, and the amount of transfers will not matter.
Tax audits
The bank transmits data on all individual accounts to the Federal Tax Service. persons But by default it does not disclose information about transfers. It is provided only when the credit institution receives a request during a tax audit.
The Federal Tax Service conducts checks in various situations, for example, if a person has filed a declaration to receive a deduction. In this case, all account transactions are analyzed. Tax authorities most likely will not be interested in a one-time transfer of a small amount. But constant transfers from different people will arouse suspicion, and they will begin to dig deeper.
If it is determined that a person evaded taxes, he will be fined. Large amounts may result in criminal liability.
Is it true that the tax office will control the receipts on an individual’s card?
Recently, quite a lot of information has appeared on the Internet that from July 1, 2021, transfers received on the card will be controlled by tax authorities and must be subject to income tax.
Links are provided to Article 86 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which regulates the responsibilities of banks related to the implementation of tax control. However, all the changes made to this article by Law 343-FZ concern only the collection of taxes from bank accounts in precious metals of individuals and organizations. There are no other amendments to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation that will come into force on July 1, so it is immediately worth noting that all posted news are rumors.
Thus, not a single news posted on the Internet provides links to legislation, but only a link to one article mentioned above.
If this were really true, then the amendment to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation should be formalized by law, which should be published no later than July 1 in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
Now let's look at what it really is. Banks have been monitoring what cash flows occur in individuals’ accounts for a long time. This obligation is assigned to them by Law No. 115-FZ of 08/07/2001
Banks can block all transactions if, in their opinion, they are dubious (suspicious). For example, a very large sum of money was deposited into an individual’s account at one time. The bank will report “suspicious” clients to Rosfinmonitoring, after which they will have to prove that there were no violations on their part. This is proven to the bank and Rosfinmonitoring, but the tax office does not receive such information.
Article 86 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which has been amended, concerns the obligation of banks to report to the tax authorities about the opening and closing of accounts for both individuals and legal entities. However, this requirement has been in effect since 2014. From the same moment, the obligation of banks was introduced to provide tax information on movements in accounts, that is, on the receipt of money and expenditure. This means that control has been carried out for a long time - 4 years.
For absolutely every client, such information is not provided to the tax authority; this happens only upon request. Moreover, the request must be justified, containing the reason for such close control. The tax office will have to prove that this request is necessary, and also obtain consent from management.
Important! Therefore, today the news that every receipt on an individual’s bank card is tracked by the bank is fake. However, this does not mean that income tax must be paid to the budget on income received on the card.
Answers to frequently asked questions
Transfers from card to card are a popular service. Amid constant rumors about the introduction of taxes on them, the population has many questions. The most popular of them and their answers:
Do I have to pay taxes on a transfer from card to Sberbank card?
This must be done only if profit is made and in cases stipulated by law. If the transfer is made between relatives, friends, etc., then this is not necessary.
Do banks withhold taxes for transfers within Sberbank to other banks?
A bank is a commercial organization. He may charge a commission for transfers from card to card, but does not calculate or withhold taxes.
Is it possible to become self-employed while living in a region not included in the experiment?
You can become a NDP payer regardless of your region of residence and registration, the main thing is to conduct activities in the region where the experiment is taking place.
conclusions
- The very fact of transferring money from a card to a Sberbank (other banks) card is not a basis for charging taxes. It is necessary for a person to make a profit.
- If a transfer from card to card of Sberbank (other banks) was made between relatives or is simply not related to making a profit, then there is no need to make any deductions to the state.
- Sberbank (other bank) does not withhold taxes from transfers independently.
- The bank transmits information about transfers to the Federal Tax Service only during checks upon request.
How will the tax be withdrawn?
Before withdrawing the tax, Tax Inspectorate employees will make a request regarding the status of the Russians’ accounts and electronic wallets. However, current laws allow this to be done only when conducting a check on a specific person.
Such checks are carried out in special cases. For example, a citizen will send a request for a tax deduction when purchasing real estate, but will not indicate an official place of work. This may be of interest to the tax office, but to conduct an audit it will still need compelling reasons and permission from regional leaders.
