One of the factors for the development of small business is a convenient and simple taxation system. The current tax legislation provides for significant preferences for small and medium-sized businesses that use special tax regimes, consisting of a voluntary choice of the taxation system (general taxation regime, simplified taxation system, single tax on imputed income, patent taxation system); in replacing the main taxes (VAT, corporate income tax, personal income tax, corporate property tax, personal property tax) with one tax; in simplifying the accounting of business transactions (income and expenses), which makes the mechanism for accounting of income and expenses more transparent; in simplifying the procedure for determining tax liabilities of small and medium-sized businesses; in reducing the volume of tax reporting submitted for this category of taxpayers (for example, a tax return is submitted once a year!); in their application of reduced tax rates.

Experience in administering taxpayers operating in the small business sector shows that errors in calculating taxes by this group of taxpayers are usually not intentional, but are related to their low tax literacy.

Unfortunately, a fairly large circle of small entrepreneurs have only a general idea of tax legislation, although the rules and regulations for calculating taxes directly affect the final profitability of the business.

But in this situation, the important fact is that such taxpayers are potentially conscientious. And for them, every mistake made can lead to the loss of the opportunity to apply a special tax regime, which, in turn, will lead to serious economic losses for an already poor taxpayer.

Our task is to minimize the errors they make in calculating taxes and, perhaps even anticipating them, to clarify and explain the provisions and rules of the Tax Code.

For this purpose, the Federal Tax Service of Russia is actively developing a system of electronic services. Today, the Federal Tax Service of Russia website presents 35 online services, which were accessed by more than 60 million users in 2012.

Today, online services of the Federal Tax Service of Russia help to create and run a business and fulfill tax obligations.

In 2012, an online registration service for individual entrepreneurs and organizations was also launched throughout the country, including using mobile devices (32,000 registration actions in electronic form). This service was awarded a diploma by the Ministry of Communications in the nomination "Best government service provided to business using the interdepartmental electronic interaction system."

And the services “Personal Account of an Individual Taxpayer”, which was launched throughout the country in 2012, and “Personal Account of a Legal Entity”, which we launched in 2013, represent a “single entry point” – their services cover almost all aspects of interaction between the taxpayer and the tax authorities.

In the near future, a new section will be opened on the website of the Federal Tax Service of Russia, allowing you to create and submit an application for a patent via the Internet.

The service "Explanations of the Federal Tax Service of Russia, mandatory for application by tax authorities" regularly examines methodological issues of taxation. It would be very good if taxpayers looked at this section more often, it helps to avoid errors in calculating taxes and fees.

One of the effective tools for “unobtrusive” promotion of simple filling out of reporting documents are tax return forms.

In my opinion, there is a certain stereotype that filling out a tax return is difficult, it is very long, very complicated, etc. But if you look at the tax return forms filled out by small businesses, you can easily see that the situation is somewhat different.

For example, a declaration on a single tax on imputed income or a declaration on a simplified taxation system. They consist of literally 2-3 sheets. And the set of indicators reflected in them is very simple: income, expenses, individual indicators characterizing the type of activity, tax rate, etc.

But the explanations on how to fill them out are really long. But these explanations are precisely a form of assistance in applying tax legislation.

Obviously, without knowing the tax legislation, it is very difficult to calculate the tax correctly.

And our instructions for filling out tax returns, in essence, represent a certain step-by-step instruction for a taxpayer who, for example, knows how to repair shoes very well, but does not know all the intricacies of taxation.

As a result, a certain compromise is obtained. The smaller the tax declaration form, the fewer indicators it contains, the better you need to know and understand how the tax is calculated, i.e., know the provisions and rules of the Tax Code.

On the other hand, by reflecting the interim results of specific transactions separately in the tax return, the risk of making an error in calculating the final tax amount is potentially reduced. And if an error is made, it is easier to detect and correct, but at the same time, more indicators appear in the tax return - and the tax return itself becomes larger in volume.

Of course, understanding this, we are focused on creating a declaration form that would be most convenient for business, so we want to involve small businesses in the joint development of tax declarations. The purpose of the declaration should not be a small or large volume of sheets, but the simplicity and clarity of its completion. We invite the business community to give their suggestions on what form would be more convenient for them to work with this declaration.

Regulators: Online Services for Small Businesses