Business dreams of low taxes and no taxes

Businesses and experts support the idea of ​​reconfiguring state support for the SME sector. In particular, at parliamentary hearings, proposals were made to increase the efficiency of small manufacturing companies: Commissioner for the Protection of Entrepreneurs’ Rights Boris Titov recalled that only 0.6% of companies in the sector (37 thousand) are engaged in industrial production (equipment, machinery, electronics) and that to stimulate them, it is necessary to change tax conditions. Two options have been proposed: increasing the threshold for applying the simplified taxation system (STS) so that companies with revenues of up to 5 billion rubles fall under it. per year, and establishing for those switching from the simplified tax system to the general tax regime a preferential income tax rate of 5% for the first two years after the transition with a transition to a progressive rate (depending on turnover) in the future, to ensure a “seamless transition from preferential tax regimes to the general one,” explained Boris Titov.

Alexander Kalinin, president of Opora Rossii, also made tax proposals at the hearing – according to him, the systemic proposals of the business community are the introduction of a limit on the growth of the property tax of organizations (previously, the Ministry of Finance promised to consider the proposal) and the expansion of the experiment on “zero” VAT to “ “human-intensive” industries: fitness, cleaning, tourism, security companies.

Delovaya Rossiya told Kommersant after the hearing that one of the main support measures in the sector development concept proposed by the authorities is considered to be the development of specialized measures to help SME+ companies (employed in priority industries, but which have already outgrown the scope of small and medium-sized businesses). Vice-President, Head of the Executive Committee of Business Russia Nonna Kagramanyan reminds that SMEs+ “can become drivers of the growth of private investment in new production, in expanding automation, in the development and dissemination of innovative technologies, which will allow us to enter the supply-side economy model.”

Another representative of Opora Russia, Vice President Arkady Gershman, during the hearings recalled non-tax payments – the problem, we recall, was discussed in 2016–2019, but its solution was bogged down in technical details (see “Kommersant” dated April 4, 2019). Mr. Gershman noted that the very concept of non-tax payments (any mandatory payments that are established outside the Tax Code) is still not enshrined in legislation, their array is not systematized, and at the same time, in 2022 alone, SMEs paid taxes in the amount of 5 trillion rubles, and non-tax payments – by 1.5 trillion rubles. “This means that non-tax payments are comparable in amount to tax payments, create an additional burden on entrepreneurs, amount to from 3% to 25% of companies’ turnover and continue to grow. Businesses are forced to include costs in the price of the product,” Mr. Gershman emphasized, proposing to return to the idea of ​​codifying such fees, bringing them into a list and limiting the maximum amount.

Kristina Borovikova