The Ministry of Finance reported “heated debates” on benefits for SMEs+

The Ministry of Finance, together with business associations, is working on preferential treatment for the so-called sector SME+ – companies that have already outgrown a medium-sized business, but have not yet reached a truly large scale, and are not ready to switch to general principles of taxation. State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Finance Alexey Sazanov spoke about this in an interview with Vedomosti.

“We are currently looking into this issue. [подготовки льгот для МСП+ – “Ведомости”], there is a presidential instruction in this regard. The main task is to create a transition regime for companies that no longer fit into the criteria for applying the simplified taxation system (simplified taxation system – Vedomosti), becoming medium-sized businesses, but have not yet reached the size of a large business,” the deputy minister said.

According to him, a compromise on the parameters of the regime between the Ministry of Finance and business representatives has not yet been reached. “We are still having heated debates, but we hope that by the end of the year we will come up with concrete proposals for such a transitional regime,” Sazanov said. The Ministry of Finance believes that the regime should be universal and not differ depending on the industry. Benefits for SMEs+ should primarily cover those industries where the share of input VAT in the cost structure is low, similar to the catering industry.

Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov announced the start of work on the regime in April. According to him, the government proposed introducing such a category with a gradual transition to a common taxation system in order to create conditions for the smooth growth of companies

“Together with [первым вице-премьером] Andrey Removich [Белоусовым] We solve the problem of supporting businesses during the transition from the category of small to medium, and from medium to large. It is proposed to introduce the so-called “SME+” category with a phased transition to a general taxation system. This will ensure a smoother growth of companies, in which they will not lose the entire amount of support at once,” Reshetnikov said.