Hunting is more important than taxes

Moscow is ready to issue patents even to shepherds

The city authorities want to bring entrepreneurs engaged in the provision of private services out of the shadows. The Moscow City Hall is preparing amendments to the city law “On a simplified taxation system based on a patent,” which will significantly expand the list of patentable activities and allow up to five hired workers to be involved in the provision of private services. In particular, the simplified taxation scheme, in addition to such types of services as tutoring, childcare, private transportation, will apply to funeral agents, holders of paid toilets, porters, as well as landlords of apartments and garages. In addition, such activities, to put it mildly, uncharacteristic for a metropolis, such as hunting and even shepherding, will be patented in the city.

As Alexander Stepanov, press secretary of the city’s economic policy and development department, told Vremya Novostei, changes in federal tax legislation forced this “non-traditional for the city” service to be included in the list of activities taxed under a simplified scheme. According to him, Moscow, like other regions, has lost the right to choose patentable types of activities and is forced to exactly copy the list of services established from above.

Officials expect that the expansion of the use of patent “simplification” will create “psychological comfort” for small businesses and will stimulate the withdrawal of a number of private services from the shadows. The fact is that the simplified patent-based taxation system in force since 2006, according to the department of economic policy and development of the capital, has still not gained much popularity among the self-employed population. During its entire existence, only a little more than 1,100 patents were sold. According to Mr. Stepanov, private cab drivers mainly use this form of taxation in Moscow. But this is understandable - the provision of transport services is much more difficult to hide than, for example, home-based work.

Let us recall that the actual tribute to the city treasury based on the patent is its cost in the amount of 6% of the potential income, which is calculated and established by the law of the subject of the federation. So, for example, according to the upcoming new edition of the Moscow law, the annual income of a hunter, landlord, private detective is estimated at 360 thousand rubles, and a funeral service agent - only 225 thousand.

The mayor’s office believes that the reason for the unpopularity of patenting private services is due to the lack of tax culture among Russian entrepreneurs and “the tendency to go into the shadows, hiding their real income.” Noting that it is the job of the tax authorities to influence the consciousness of Moscow private owners, capital economists emphasize that they themselves “do not pursue fiscal goals.” “This is one of the types of support for small businesses,” noted the press secretary of the city’s department of economic policy and development.

In turn, representatives of the capital’s business, citing many years of work practice, state that “the mayor’s office, as a rule, reduces all good initiatives to the fact that they become meaningless.” According to Vladlen Maksimov, an expert at Opora Rossii and chairman of the Moscow region trade union of entrepreneurs, the Freedom League, the authorities are guided by the desire to take at least something from those who do not pay taxes at all. “Let’s be realistic, it is almost impossible to tax the private services sector today,” a representative of the business community is confident of the uselessness of the unpopular patent taxation system.

Yulia KHOMCHENKO