Computing and accounting specialty – Newspaper Kommersant No. 188 (7389) dated 10/11/2022

The government has specified the types of activities of Russian IT companies that can qualify for benefits, and their employees for a deferment from mobilization. According to the new rules, in addition to software and database developers, creators of video games, electronic simulators, music streaming, taxi ordering, food and car sharing services can get into the profile register.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with by order of the Ministry of Digital Development “On the list of activities in the field of information technology”, which the ministry published on October 10. The document defines the list of activities of companies that may qualify for inclusion in the register of accredited IT companies.

The inclusion of an organization in the register gives the right to claim a number of benefits, including zeroing the income tax rate until the end of 2024 and reducing insurance premiums for employees to 7.6%. The Federal Tax Service will not conduct scheduled on-site inspections of companies until March 2025. They also have access to loans at 3%, and employees under 27 received a deferment from military service and access to preferential mortgages.

But now the most relevant thing is that employees of only accredited IT companies can get a reservation from the partial mobilization announced on September 21.

However, accreditation is not enough: an employee must have a specialized higher education from a special list (see below). “Kommersant” dated September 27).

The regulator in the order singled out 36 types of IT activities, and also introduced a limit on the minimum share of revenue from IT activities at 30%, with a lower indicator, the company will not be included in the register. The list includes the design, modification and integration of software (software) and databases, the production of radio electronic and telecommunications equipment, the development of the Internet of things and artificial intelligence, the development of games, including “sales of in-game items of computer games and video games, including activities to create virtual worlds and space”, 2D and 3D animation and creation of electronic simulators.

Among the enterprises that will be able to apply for getting into the register, there are developers of applications and services for car rental, ordering a taxi, carsharing and food delivery, as well as enterprises providing services and “granting rights of use by objects of copyright and related rights related to phonograms” i.e. music streaming services.

According to Kommersant’s interlocutor, close to the government, since August, the inclusion of companies in the register has been suspended due to the fact that “the old selection criteria have actually lost their relevance, and new ones were in the process of being developed.”

The need to create new rules was due to the adoption in July of amendments to the Tax Code. The old selection criteria were formal and required the candidate only to have a specialized OKVED. “This led to the fact that hundreds of legal entities that were on the register considered themselves IT companies only legally, but did not develop products and did not provide specialized services,” the source explains.

Aleksey Smirnov, chairman of the board of directors of Bazalt SPO, says that the change in the accreditation procedure was planned back in the summer: “The problem was that in the register of software developers, in addition to directly IT companies, there were enterprises for which software development is not the main source of revenue: banks , insurance companies and others. The new accreditation procedure was conceived to prevent such situations, the expert says.

There are many organizations on the market whose activities are significantly diversified, notes Lyudmila Bogatyreva, head of the digital solutions department at the Polylog agency: “They may have a digital division with a staff of developers, an IT product, and even a recognizable brand, but if the share of IT in the total revenue of the organization does not reach 30% (according to the new rules), accreditation will be denied.” This can put such companies on the brink of survival, she said, provoking a massive migration of IT professionals to accredited competitors.

Tatiana Isakova, Nikita Korolev