“New People” are asked to extend state support measures for IT companies to individual entrepreneurs

The New People faction will submit a bill to the State Duma for consideration, which will allow individual entrepreneurs (IEs) working in the IT sector to apply for inclusion in the register of accredited companies of the Ministry of Digital Development. This, party representatives say, will potentially allow individual entrepreneurs to receive tax and social benefits, as well as qualify for soft loans. Kommersant’s interlocutors in the IT industry note that the initiative was not discussed with specialized software associations. Representatives of IT companies are skeptical about the idea, believing that it is easier to create an LLC than to change the Tax Code.

Kommersant got acquainted with the bill of the New People party, which proposes to extend state support measures, which IT companies accredited by the Ministry of Digital Development are now receiving, to individual entrepreneurs operating in the field of information technology. In particular, through the introduction of amendments to paragraph 1.15 of Art. 284 of the Tax Code, it is planned to give individual entrepreneurs working on OKVED, related to information technology, the opportunity to apply to the Ministry of Digital Development for inclusion in the register of accredited companies.

The explanatory note to the document says that now support measures are available only to legal entities working in the IT sector and who have passed state accreditation. But at the same time, more than 422.6 thousand small and medium-sized businesses operate in the IT segment, of which 279.6 thousand are registered as individual entrepreneurs.

The current state of affairs, according to New People, does not meet the principle of equality of business entities. The document is planned to be submitted to the State Duma on July 20.

As a representative of New People explained to Kommersant, if the initiative is adopted, individual entrepreneurs will be able to receive a number of benefits that are now available to accredited IT companies. This is a reduction in insurance premiums to 7.6%, the right to receive preferential loans at 3% per annum, the possibility of preferential mortgages for employees, and a deferment from mobilization. The Ministry of Digital Development told Kommersant that the ministry supports any initiatives related to the expansion of measures to support the IT industry: “At the same time, it is necessary to analyze the impact of the initiative on the budgets of the regions.”

To be included in the register of accredited IT companies, enterprises must meet a number of conditions. According to Decree No. 1719, a company must have a specialized OKVED, the average salary of employees in a company must be at least the average for the region or country, the share of company income from IT activities must be more than 30% in total income, the company must have a website where information about its activities in the field of IT, the company must also provide the consent of the tax authorities to provide information constituting a tax secret. Individual entrepreneurs are not able to apply for inclusion in the register.

Only those IT companies that actually create software or receive core revenue need to provide tax support measures, says Renat Lashin, executive director of the Domestic Soft Association: “In this regard, the initiative, in our opinion, is unfeasible from the point of view of ensuring technological sovereignty” .

The general director of SKB Kontur, Mikhail Srodnykh, draws attention to the fact that it is easier for individual entrepreneurs employed in the IT sector and interested in obtaining benefits to change the legal form of their enterprise: “Re-registering an individual entrepreneur in an LLC is much easier than adjusting the Tax Code.”

GR director of T1 Holding Dina Ashrapova says that the largest IT associations did not request such initiatives, realizing that this requires a detailed financial and economic justification. An interlocutor of Kommersant in a large Russian IT company calls the idea of ​​\u200b\u200b”New People” impassable: “There are big doubts that the bill will be adopted in its original form.”

A Kommersant source familiar with the development of the initiative says that the document was not approved by the presidential administration. Kommersant’s interlocutors are also unaware that the bill is being coordinated with the United Russia faction (ER). It should be noted that the bills introduced by the deputies of the opposition factions without the support of the representatives of the Duma majority in the person of United Russia are rarely adopted by the State Duma.

Nikita Korolev