We create an organization website: accounting and tax accounting

Its own website helps any organization to make itself known: to present the most complete information about the goods it sells, the work it performs or the services it provides. But accounting and tax accounting for the costs of creating this kind of “electronic business card” has a number of features related to obtaining exclusive or non-exclusive rights, compliance with the criteria of intangible assets, etc. This article will help you take into account all the possible nuances associated with the development of a website.

Let's understand the terminology

Paragraphs 13 and 15 of Article 2 of the Federal Law of July 27, 2006 No. 149-FZ “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection” state:

website on the Internet - a set of programs for electronic computers and other information contained in an information system, access to which is provided through the Internet information and telecommunications network using domain names and (or) network addresses that allow identifying sites on the Internet.
domain name is a symbol designation intended for addressing sites on the Internet in order to provide access to information posted on the Internet.

In other words, a site is a “place” on the Internet that is defined by its own “address”, has its own owner and consists of web pages that are perceived as a single whole. An Internet site as a collection of visually perceptible pages and controls is created using certain commands and thus is a visual representation of a computer program as a collection of these commands. Therefore, in accordance with Article 1261 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the site can be considered as a computer program.

From the point of view of civil law, a website as a set of computer programs, databases and works of graphics and design is classified as objects of copyright and is subject to legal protection (subclauses 1, 2, 3, clause 1, article 1225, paragraph 7, 13 p 1, paragraph 2, paragraph 2, Article 1259, paragraph 2, Article 1260, Article 1261 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). The exclusive right to the result of intellectual activity created by creative work initially arises with its author. In this case, this right can be transferred by him to another person (clause 3 of Article 1228 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

A domain (domain name) is the name (address) of your website on the Internet, which consists of a unique combination of characters (Clause 15, Article 2 of Federal Law No. 149-FZ).

The domain name must be registered with the Russian Research Institute for the Development of Public Networks (RosNIIROS) or with registrars authorized by it. Re-registration of a domain name is carried out, as a rule, annually and provides the organization with the opportunity to retain the specific name of its website on the Internet.

Hosting is a service provided on a regular basis for placing an organization’s website on a provider’s server that is permanently connected to the Internet.

Let's understand the terminology

Paragraphs 13 and 15 of Article 2 of the Federal Law of July 27, 2006 No. 149-FZ “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection” state:

website on the Internet - a set of programs for electronic computers and other information contained in an information system, access to which is provided through the Internet information and telecommunications network using domain names and (or) network addresses that allow identifying sites on the Internet.
domain name is a symbol designation intended for addressing sites on the Internet in order to provide access to information posted on the Internet.

...a site is a “place” on the Internet that is defined by its own “address”, has its own owner and consists of web pages that are perceived as a single whole...

A domain (domain name) is the name (address) of your website on the Internet, which consists of a unique combination of characters (Clause 15, Article 2 of Federal Law No. 149-FZ).

Hosting is a service provided on a regular basis for placing an organization’s website on a provider’s server that is permanently connected to the Internet.

Useful life

If an organization owns all exclusive rights to a website, then their validity period is not limited in time. Therefore, for accounting purposes, determine the period of use of the created website based on the period during which it is planned to use it for management needs, production of products (performance of work, provision of services) and other generation of income, but not longer than the period of activity of the organization. This is stated in paragraph 26 of PBU 14/2007. If it is impossible to determine the period of use of the site based on such parameters, then it is considered indefinite (such a program cannot be amortized) (clauses 25, 23 of PBU 14/2007). Subsequently, the organization must annually check whether the useful life of the site has changed significantly (clause 27 of PBU 14/2007). In addition, for objects with an indefinite useful life, it is necessary to check annually whether factors that interfere with determining their useful life have been excluded (paragraph 2 of clause 27 of PBU 14/2007).

The useful life of the site must be approved by order of the head of the organization.

We reflect the creation of the site in accounting

Accounting for exclusive rights

In accounting, the procedure for accounting for the costs of creating a website depends on whether the organization recognizes its intangible assets or not.

If an organization has acquired exclusive rights to a website or its individual parts that are capable of independently generating income, then in accounting they should be taken into account as part of intangible assets (IMA) when fulfilling the requirements of clause 3 of PBU 14/2007 (approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated December 27 .2007 No. 153n), in particular, if the object is intended for use for a period exceeding 12 months and is capable of bringing economic benefits to the organization.

An intangible asset is accepted for accounting at its actual (initial) cost determined as of the date of its capitalization (clause 6 of PBU 14/2007).

If an organization develops a website independently, then in accounting the initial (actual) cost of the website will be the costs of paying the organization’s employees, as well as the amount of insurance premiums accrued from the wages of employees participating in the creation of intangible assets.

If the development of the site was entrusted to a third-party organization and it transfers exclusive rights to it, then the initial cost of the intangible assets will be the amount of costs for developing the site under an agreement with the developer organization.

Also included in the initial cost of intangible assets are other expenses directly related to the acquisition and creation of an intangible asset and providing conditions for using the asset for the intended purposes (clauses 8 and 9 of PBU 14/2007). For example, the cost of the initial registration of a domain name should be taken into account in the cost of intangible assets. After all, as already mentioned, a website cannot function without a domain name.

...quite often a website is created for an indefinite period, depreciation for such intangible assets is not accrued in accounting...

Looking ahead, we will say that the initial cost of intangible assets will be formed similarly in tax accounting (clause 3 of Article 257 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, Letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated 02.02.2011 No. 03-03-06/1/55, dated 03.25.2011 No. 03-03-06/1/173).

The cost of intangible assets is repaid by calculating depreciation over their useful life (clause 23 of PBU 14/2007).

For intangible assets with an indefinite useful life, depreciation is not accrued in accounting (clause 23 of PBU 14/2007).

In this case, the useful life is the period expressed in months during which the organization expects to use intangible assets to obtain economic benefits (clause 25 of PBU 14/2007). It is determined based on (clause 26 PBU 14/2007):

the validity period of the organization’s rights to the result of intellectual activity and the period of control over the asset;
the expected life of the asset over which the entity expects to receive economic benefits.

The organization must annually check the useful life and method of calculating depreciation for intangible assets. If the period of use of the site changes significantly and/or if the calculation of the expected flow of future economic benefits from its use changes significantly, the useful life and/or method of determining depreciation should be changed accordingly.

In practice, quite often a website is created for an indefinite period; therefore, its useful life cannot be clearly established; accordingly, depreciation for such intangible assets is not accrued in accounting. But every year the organization must consider the presence of factors indicating the impossibility of reliably determining the useful life of a given asset (clause 27 of PBU 14/02007). And in case of termination of their existence, i.e. after the emergence of data on the period of use of the site, intangible assets can be depreciated.

In this case, as well as in the case of revision of the useful life of intangible assets, the resulting adjustments are reflected in accounting and financial statements as changes in estimated values (clauses 27, 30 PBU 14/2007, clauses 2, 3, 4 of the Accounting Regulations “ Changes in estimated values" (PBU 21/2008), approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated October 6, 2008 No. 106n.).

In accounting, costs associated with the acquisition of objects that will subsequently be accepted for accounting as intangible assets are taken into account in account 08 “Investments in non-current assets”, subaccount “Acquisition of intangible assets”. The generated actual (initial) value of intangible assets is written off from account 08 to the debit of account 04 “Intangible assets”.

Depreciation is reflected in the credit of account 05 “Amortization of intangible assets” and the debit of cost accounting accounts 20, 26, 44, etc.

Tax accounting of intangible assets

In tax accounting, the conditions for recognizing intangible assets are almost the same as in accounting.

However, in tax accounting, unlike accounting, a restrictive criterion is provided for recognizing an object as depreciable property: the initial cost of the object must be at least 40,000 rubles (clause 1 of Article 256 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, Letter of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation dated November 24, 2011 No. ED -4-3/19695).

According to the Ministry of Finance of Russia, if the costs of creating a website amounted to an amount less than the cost of depreciable property (less than 40,000 rubles) (clause 1 of Article 256 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), then such a site is not recognized as an intangible asset, and the costs for it are written off at a time the composition of other expenses associated with production and sales (clause 1 of Article 256 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

For your information

The site can be used in activities aimed at generating income, but does not meet the criteria for intangible assets. This occurs in the following situations

• useful life is less than 12 months (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated July 21, 2010 No. 03-03-06/1/480); • the organization received exclusive rights only to certain elements of the site that cannot function independently, for example, only to the site design.

In these cases, the costs are taken into account as other expenses:

• as expenses for the acquisition of computer programs and databases under contracts with the copyright holder (clause 26 of article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation); • or as periodic payments under a license agreement for the use of rights to the results of intellectual activity (subclause 37, clause 1, article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation); • or as other expenses associated with the acquisition or creation of a website (subclause 49, clause 1, article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

If advertising information is posted on the site, then these costs are taken into account as advertising expenses (subclause 28, clause 1, article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Intangible assets are classified as depreciable property (Clause 1, Article 256 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

The organization begins to calculate depreciation on the 1st day of the month following the month in which the site was put into operation (clause 2 of Article 259 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). In this case, the commissioning date is the moment the site is posted on the Internet.

The useful life of an intangible asset is determined based on the validity period of the patent, certificate and (or) other restrictions on the period of use of intellectual property objects, as well as on the basis of the period stipulated by the relevant contracts.

If the useful life cannot be determined, depreciation rates are established based on a useful life equal to ten years, but not more than the period of activity of the taxpayer (clause 2 of Article 258 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

However, there is a special rule for computer programs and databases. For such objects, the taxpayer can establish the useful life independently, but this period cannot be less than two years (clause 2 of Article 258 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

If there are no exclusive rights to the site

If the exclusive rights to the site are not transferred, then in this case the organization receives intangible assets for use and such rights are taken into account on an off-balance sheet account in an assessment determined based on the amount of remuneration established in the agreement.

In this case, payments for the granted right to use the results of intellectual activity, made in the form of a one-time payment, are reflected in accounting as deferred expenses in account 97 “Deferred expenses” and are subject to write-off as expenses for ordinary activities of the current period during the validity period of the license agreement (paragraph 2, clause 39 PBU 14/2007, clause 65 of the Regulations on accounting and financial reporting in the Russian Federation, clauses 5, 7, 19 of the Accounting Regulations “Expenses of the organization” PBU 10/99, approved by the Order Ministry of Finance of Russia dated May 6, 1999 No. 33n).

Periodic payments, calculated and paid in the manner and within the terms established by the agreement, are included in the expenses of the reporting period (paragraph 2, paragraph 39 of PBU 14/2007, paragraphs 5, 7, 16, 18 of PBU 10/99). These expenses are reflected in the debit of cost accounting accounts 20, 26, 44, etc. in correspondence with the credit of the account of settlements with the copyright holder (account 76) (Instructions for using the Chart of Accounts).

In tax accounting, if there are no exclusive rights to a website, the costs of its creation will be taken into account as part of other expenses associated with production and sales (subclause 26, clause 1, article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). The Russian Ministry of Finance believes that these expenses should not be taken into account at the same time. When applying the accrual method, they are written off in the following order (Letter dated August 31, 2012 No. 03-03-06/2/95):

if, under the terms of the agreement for the acquisition of non-exclusive rights, a period for using computer programs is established, expenses related to several reporting periods are taken into account when calculating the tax base evenly over these periods;
if the terms of the agreement for the acquisition of non-exclusive rights cannot determine the period of use of computer programs, then the expenses incurred are distributed taking into account the principle of uniform recognition of income and expenses. In this case, the taxpayer in tax accounting has the right to independently determine the period during which these expenses are subject to accounting for profit tax purposes.

Inclusion in the NMA

If all exclusive rights to the site belong to the organization (and not the developers), then it can be taken into account as part of intangible assets. In this case, other conditions listed in paragraph 3 of PBU 14/2007 must be observed. Namely:

exclusive rights to the site are confirmed by documents (for example, an agreement with an employee involved in the development of the site; an official assignment for the creation of a site; an author's order agreement with a third-party specialist; an act of acceptance and transfer of the exclusive right, etc.);

the organization does not plan to transfer (sell) exclusive rights to the site in the next 12 months;

the site is used in the production of products (works, services) or for management needs;

using the site may bring economic benefits (income);

the period of use of the site exceeds 12 months;

the initial cost of the site can be determined.

There are no cost restrictions for including a website among intangible assets in accounting. It is also not necessary to register exclusive rights to a website with Rospatent (Article 1262 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

Website domain name registration, technical support and hosting services

As we have already said, in accounting and tax accounting, the cost of the initial registration of a domain name can be taken into account in the cost of intangible assets, since without it the site cannot be used to create it.

Expenses for re-registration of a domain name are recorded in account 97 “Deferred expenses” and are written off in accounting and tax accounting evenly over the period for which it is extended. If such a period is not specified, expenses are taken into account at a time (clause 65 of the Regulations on accounting and reporting in the Russian Federation, subclause 49, clause 1, article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, clause 1, article 272 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, Letter dated January 17, 2007 No. 20-12/004121).

As for the costs of paying for hosting services and technical support of the site, these types of expenses are reflected in accounting as part of expenses for ordinary activities (clause 5 of PBU 10/99). For the purposes of taxation of profits of this type, expenses are classified as other expenses related to production and sales (subclause 49, clause 1, article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). If information is posted on the website for advertising purposes, then these expenses can be taken into account as advertising (subclause 28, clause 1, article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, Letter of the Federal Tax Service for Moscow dated January 17, 2007 No. 20-12/004121) .

Rimma Skorohvatova

, tax consultant at the First House of Consulting “What to do Consult”, for the magazine “Moscow Accountant”

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Hosting costs

According to the All-Russian Classification of Products by Type of Economic Activities (OK 034-2007 (KPES 2002)), the service for placing and supporting resources on the Internet (web hosting services) is assigned code 72.3023.00. This group includes services for hosting, storing and supporting electronic resources (including web pages) of users on the Internet, allowing other Internet users to access them; providing page owners with the ability to modify them at any time.

Given this definition, we can conclude that for accounting and tax purposes, hosting costs must be accounted for in a manner similar to accounting for domain name costs. That is, the initial costs of hosting should be taken into account in the initial cost of intangible assets, and subsequent costs of paying for hosting services should be taken into account as part of current expenses in accounting and tax accounting.

Thus, the accounting should reflect:

Debit 08-5, subaccount “Site” Credit 60 (76)

— hosting costs are reflected, which are to be included in the initial cost of the site.

Expenses for paying for hosting in the periods following the period when the site was registered as an intangible asset should be reflected:

1. How to make an advance:

Debit 76, subaccount “Advance for hosting” Credit 51

— paid domain name;

Debit 20 (26, 44) Credit 76, subaccount “Hosting expenses”

— part of the hosting costs is included in the organization’s costs;

Debit 76, subaccount “Expenses for a domain name” Credit 76, subaccount “Advance for hosting”

- the advance has been credited.

2. How are the running costs:

Debit 20 (26, 44) Credit 76, subaccount “Hosting expenses”

— hosting costs are included in the organization’s costs;

Debit 76, subaccount “Hosting expenses” Credit 51

— paid hosting.

As mentioned above, in tax accounting, the costs of the initial payment for hosting services should be included in the initial cost of the site.

Expenses for subsequent payment for hosting services can be included in other expenses on the basis of clause. 49 clause 1 art. 264 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. It must be remembered that expenses must not only be economically justified, but also documented (Article 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Let us note that in the case when payment for hosting services is made monthly, the organization may include expenses for hosting services as part of other expenses either on the date of settlements in accordance with the terms of concluded agreements, or on the date of presentation to the taxpayer of documents serving as the basis for making settlements, or on the last day of the reporting (tax) period.

And if payment for hosting services is made for a period longer than the reporting period, then it is necessary to ensure uniform recognition of hosting expenses (clause 1 of Article 272 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), that is, distribute the cost of services evenly and recognize the corresponding amount at the end of the reporting period.

Letter of the law. When can an exclusive right pass to an employee?

The exclusive right to a work created within the scope of the employee’s job duties (official work) belongs to the author if the employer, within three years from the day the official work was placed at his disposal, does not perform one of the actions (Clause 2 of Art. 1295 Civil Code of the Russian Federation):

- will not start using this work;

- will not transfer the exclusive right to it to another person;

- will not inform the author about keeping the work secret.

We determine the initial cost of the site

Intangible assets are classified as depreciable property. Their cost is repaid by calculating depreciation (clause 1 of Article 256 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

According to paragraph 3 of Article 257 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the initial cost of a website is defined as the sum of expenses for its acquisition (creation) and bringing it to a state in which it is suitable for use. It does not include VAT and excise taxes.

The cost of a website developed by the organization’s employees is formed as the sum of the actual costs of its creation. These include, in particular:

— expenses for remuneration of workers directly involved in the creation of the site;

— patent fees, registration fees and other payments related to the execution and registration of exclusive rights;

— expenses for services of third parties;

- material costs;

- other similar costs.

The initial cost of the site is not increased by the amount of unified social tax and contributions for compulsory social insurance against accidents at work and occupational diseases, accrued from payments in favor of the workers who developed the site. The fact is that the specified tax and insurance premiums reduce the taxable profit of the current period as part of other expenses (subclauses 1 and 45 of clause 1 of Article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, respectively). In addition, other taxes and fees taken into account in accordance with the Tax Code when calculating income tax are also not included in the cost of the site.

The initial cost of a website ordered to a contractor is formed from the amount paid for development and the costs of the customer organization for installing the resulting software package, debugging, testing, etc.