Acsour.com_ENG

Simplified taxation system, income tax, personal income tax: new legislative changes

Legal Digest News
A package of bills related to changes in the tax system has been submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation for consideration. The composition of the changes is indicated in the text of the news below.

Five-step progressive personal income tax scale

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation has proposed to introduce a five-step progressive personal income tax scale for the income of individuals.

Currently, citizens pay 13% of income less than 5 million rubles and 15% over this amount. Now the personal income tax scale can consist of five steps in the context of the following tax rates:

  • 13% - for incomes up to 2.4 million rubles per year (about 200 thousand rubles per month);
  • 15% - for income from 2.4 million to 5 million rubles per year (from 200 to 417 thousand rubles per month);
  • 18% - for income from 5 million to 20 million rubles per year (from 417 thousand to 1.67 million rubles per month);
  • 20% - for income from 20 million to 50 million rubles per year (from 1.67 to 4.17 million rubles per month);
  • 22% - for incomes over 50 million rubles per year (from 4.17 million rubles per month).

The increased rate will not apply to the entire amount of income, but only to exceeding the threshold level (for example, if an employee receives 300 thousand rubles a month, then the tax at the rate of 15% will be deducted from the amount of 100 thousand rubles).

13% will be withheld from income in the form of dividends received if the amount of income is 2.4 million rubles, if higher, the tax rate will be 15% without further progression. For the self-employed, everything will remain at the same level.

Changes in income tax

It is expected to increase the income tax rate from 20% to 25%. Also, the rate of 25% will be taxed:

  • income in the form of profits of controlled foreign companies from their controlling organizations;
  • income of foreign organizations that is not related to activities in the Russian Federation through a permanent establishment (this is a tax withheld by a Russian tax agent who pays income to a foreign company). This rate does not and will not apply to dividends and a number of other income.

For IT companies, it is possible to introduce a rate of 5% (instead of the current 0%), which will be fully credited to the federal budget.

In addition, an increase in the increasing coefficient is expected from 1.5 to 2 points. The changes relate to cost accounting:

when forming the initial cost:

  • fixed assets included in the unified register of Russian radio-electronic products related to the field of artificial intelligence;
  • fixed assets included in the list of Russian high-tech equipment approved by the government;
  • intangible asset in the form of exclusive rights to programs for electronic computers and databases included in the unified register of Russian software related to the field of artificial intelligence;
  • intangible assets — expenses for research and development work carried out according to the list established by the government. Alternatively, these costs can be included in other expenses of the period in which such research and development work was completed;

when accounting for other expenses related to production and (or) sale — expenses related to the acquisition of the right to use under contracts with the copyright holder (under license and sublicense agreements) programs and databases included in the unified register of Russian software related to the field of AI.

The federal investment income tax deduction is being introduced, while the existing investment tax deduction also continues to operate in the same form as it exists now. The new deduction will not be able to exceed 50% of the amount of expenses that make up the initial cost of fixed assets or amortised intangible assets, as well as expenses for completion, modernization, and so on.

This deduction will reduce the amount of tax to be credited to the federal budget, calculated at a rate of 25%. The total amount of tax payable to this budget cannot be lower than 2% of the profit.

Changes in the simplified taxation system

It is assumed that from January 1, 2025, companies applying the simplified taxation system will become payers of value added tax. However, it will be possible to obtain a tax exemption if one of the conditions is met:

  • the company begins to apply the exemption from value added tax in the same calendar year in which they switch to the simplified taxation system
or
  • the tax income for the previous calendar year is no more than 60 million rubles.

To receive an exemption, you will need to submit a notification to the Federal Tax Service inspectorate no later than January 20, 2025. Further, every year until the 20th day of the month following the expired 12 calendar months of the application of the exemption, it will be necessary to confirm with documents the right to continue applying the exemption.

Upon receipt of the release, it will be impossible to refuse it at will. And if during the tax period the income exceeds 60 million rubles, the right to exemption will be lost from the 1st day of the month in which the excess occurred.

If the exemption could not be obtained, companies will be able to choose one of the options for paying value-added tax: the general and special procedure for paying value-added tax.

In the first case, you will need:

  • calculate and pay value added tax at the general rates (20%, 10%, 0%, settlement rates)
  • issue invoices, keep books of sales and purchases
  • to use the right to apply deductions
  • submit declarations on value added tax.

In the second case, the company pays value added tax using reduced rates:

5% without deductions, while fulfilling the conditions:

  • tax income for the previous calendar year did not exceed 250 million rubles;
  • tax income in the current calendar year did not exceed 250 million rubles.

7% without deductions:

  • from the month in which the tax income for the current calendar year exceeded 250 million rubles
or
  • from the beginning of the year, if the tax income for the previous calendar year exceeded 250 million rubles

To apply a special procedure, you need to send an application to the territorial inspection body of the federal tax service indicating the tax rate: 5 or 7%. The deadline for submitting an application is no later than the 20th day of the month following the tax period, starting from which a special procedure for paying value added tax is applied.

The value added tax rate indicated in the application will need to be applied continuously for twelve tax periods for value added tax, or until the right to apply such a rate or the simplified taxation system regime as a whole is lost.

Acsour company carefully monitors legislative changes and will advise you on any questions on this topic.