Bribe from small

An attempt to plug budget holes by increasing the burden on small businesses is unlikely to be successful

The unremarkable draft order, published in early November on the ministry’s website, caused outrage in the business community. The single tax on imputed income for small enterprises should increase significantly. UTII is one of the types of simplified taxation for small businesses, which allows an individual entrepreneur or a small LLC of several people not to have an accountant on staff and not to submit complex financial statements. It is calculated as follows: a fixed amount established for each industry is multiplied by the area of the enterprise or the number of employees, then by two coefficients: K1 - an increasing deflator coefficient, which the Ministry of Economic Development sets every year, and K2 - a decreasing one, set by local authorities. The entrepreneur must pay 15% of the resulting amount.

This year, the Ministry of Economic Development set the deflator coefficient at 2.083, which is 15.6% more than in 2015 (1.798). For businessmen, this will mean additional tens of thousands of rubles in taxes per year: for example, according to RBC estimates, a store with an area of 50 square meters will pay 46.5 thousand rubles more per year. “The tax increase will affect the remaining kiosks and cafes, which are already squeezed. There are many obstacles for small businesses: trading in passages is prohibited, rental rates are high. And when the tax increases so much, it undermines the last trust that entrepreneurs still have in the state. The government is constantly changing taxation schemes, although even if all small businesses are exempt from taxes, the budget will not lose anything at all against the backdrop of the enormous sums spent on large-scale government projects, on football, etc.,” says Yana, head of the Business Solidarity association. Yakovleva . She believes that entrepreneurs will now consider new tax schemes.

Increasing UTII is not an initiative of the Ministry of Economic Development - the ministry annually reviews the values of the coefficients according to the methodology defined in the Tax Code, notes ministry press secretary Elena Lashkina in a conversation with Novaya. The numbers are set based on a preliminary estimate of the consumer price index for the current year, according to the forecast of socio-economic development of the Russian Federation. “The significant increase in the deflator coefficient, including for UTII, was caused by a significant increase in inflation in 2015,” says the press secretary. She found it difficult to answer whether the ministry could introduce an initiative to adjust the calculation, noting that amendments to the Tax Code are the prerogative of the Ministry of Finance.

Russians could notice the rise in inflation in the last six months in store windows with the naked eye. However, according to representatives of the business community, merchants did not get much richer: with such strong inflation, many buyers chose to tighten their belts and simply buy fewer goods.

“Small stores are forced to sell cheaper because of large retail chains that can afford to keep prices low,” says Anatoly Churgel, a businessman and former head of the Opora Rossii branch in the Moscow region . — Small business will die. To enter a large chain with your product, you must pay the manager a certain amount exceeding his annual salary - this is an entrance ticket that has its own price, and it is almost unaffordable for a small business. And if you win a tender, you must deposit a certain amount into the account of the company that announced the tender. It is returned to you only after you complete the entire project and the document is signed, along with payment for the entire contract. Moreover, payment can be greatly delayed, and as a result, many enterprises have gone bankrupt. At the same time, there are no available loans for small businesses.”

According to Churgel, as a result, people will take new steps to remove their work as much as possible from the control of the state, for example, they will underestimate sales figures whenever possible. “We have such a mentality that if a person is not given a check at the cash register, then he will not demand it, and this is how many evade taxes,” notes the entrepreneur.

Natalya Zubarevich, director of the regional program at the Institute for Social Policy , believes that raising the tax will not benefit anyone. “This is an attempt to help regional budgets, because they have large debts and deficits, but in the end the result will be insignificant or negative. According to 2014 data, on average in Russia, taxes from small businesses provide 3.6% of all revenues to the consolidated budgets of the regions. In some regions this figure is higher due to the fact that trade is historically more developed there: for example, in the Kaliningrad region it is 8%, in the Krasnodar Territory - 7%, in the Primorsky Territory - 5%. The figures are also relatively high in depressed regions, where there are fewer other sources of income and where small businesses weigh more: in the Kirov region it is 6%, in Chuvashia and the Penza region - 5% each. And in the budgets of oil and gas regions, small businesses mean very little,” notes Zubarevich.

According to the expert, during a crisis the state will increase the burden on all types of businesses, but the weakest ones will suffer the most. “The breadwinners of the budget are the oil and gas industry and metallurgists,” says Zubarevich. — The load on oil and gas has already been slightly increased, but these companies have powerful lobbying resources. I think that in the near future they will also introduce export duties on metallurgical products and fertilizers.” One way or another, small businesses will suffer the most - “because they cannot resist.” According to the expert, as a result of the growth of UTII, the number of registered enterprises will only decrease.

So far, of the largest Russian companies, taxes have been increased only for Gazprom. On October 9, the government issued a decree increasing the mineral extraction tax (MET) by 36.7% for “organizations that have the exclusive right to export natural gas in gaseous state.” According to the Ministry of Finance, this should bring an additional 101.6 billion rubles to the budget. Prior to this, during the summer and autumn, a tax maneuver with an increase in the tax burden for oil companies was discussed. If it is accepted, then, according to Bank of America estimates , Rosneft will pay 171 billion rubles more in 2016, Lukoil - 70 billion, Surgutneftegaz - 48, Gazprom Neft - 37, Bashneft "- by 15, "Tatneft" - by 20 billion rubles. The head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, actively objected to the tax maneuver. The Duma is currently considering a bill to freeze the oil export duty in 2016: previously it was planned to gradually reduce it. A one-year delay, according to government estimates, should bring 200 billion rubles to the budget.

Bad news about the prospects for small businesses came against the backdrop of the same news - about social guarantees for working Russians. In 2016, the minimum wage will most likely be indexed below the inflation rate. The State Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs recommended adopting in the first reading a bill on indexing the minimum wage by 4% (5,965 rubles per month instead of 6,204), while inflation is projected at 6.4%. During the crisis, the most vulnerable participants in the Russian economy will not receive tangible support.