Unfortunately, counterparty’s dishonesty is often encountered. The legislation of the Russian Federation offers as a compensation for losses the opportunity to recover from the non-payer a percentage for the unlawful exploitation of third-party assets. How to calculate interest on borrowed money, what significant moments should be taken into account, which regulatory documents to rely on - all this you will find in the article. A calculation will also be made using a specific example.
What is the use of other people's money
In modern business conditions, a situation often arises when someone else’s assets are misused, especially cash. These are cases such as:
- Delay in payment of receivables.
- Untimely repayments of loans and credits.
- Unlawful withholding of excessively or erroneously paid amounts.
The Civil Code (CC) regulates the use of someone else's money in article 395. According to this article, it is necessary to pay a percentage for the misuse of third-party resources, since late payment makes it impossible for the party that provided the assets to extract income from them if they were returned on time.
The specificity of funds is that when they are in circulation, they will certainly increase, regardless of how the owner will use them. Even if they are simply placed in the bank, they will already give a percentage. Therefore, it would be logical to assume that the refund should always be in a larger amount. The only exceptions are contracts in which the condition of gratuitous use is prescribed in advance .
To make the calculation, it is necessary to clarify several important points: clearly establish the time interval for which the penalty will be charged, that is, the date from which the accrual and the completion date of the accrual process, the interest rate and the calculation procedure are carried out.
Determine the start date of the time interval
Based on the general rule, the start of interest calculation should be the next day after your counterparty has not fulfilled its obligations to you. Consider an example. The due date for the goods is July 31, 2015, but the buyer has not paid. Consequently, the right to start charging late fees comes on August 01.
It happens that the contract does not indicate the exact date of payment, also in case of excessive or erroneous payment of funds, how to determine the time interval for calculating interest? In this case, rely on the date of demand. This means that the debtor must return the funds within a week from the fact that he was asked to pay. From the eighth day you can safely calculate the penalty for the misuse of your money.
The request must be made in writing, it is desirable that it contains a note that the debtor received the document.
Determine the end date of the time interval
Interest is accrued throughout the entire period until the counterparty fulfills its obligation. Suppose, in our example, the buyer deposited the entire necessary amount into the settlement account of your company on 08/08/2015. Consequently, interest will be accrued for the period from August 1 to August 08.
Determine the interest rate
According to regulatory documents, the percentage of use of borrowed money is required to be calculated based on the refinancing rate, current at the time of fulfillment of the obligation. Since September 14, 2012 it has been approved in the amount of 8.25 and has not been revised since. So, you need to calculate the interest based on this rate.
Important clarification. The provisions of the first paragraph of Article 395 shall enter into force only if the parties to the agreement have not prescribed the size of the interest rate when calculating interest for undue delays. If the parties took this moment into account in the contract, then the calculation is made based on the rate indicated in the document and not the refinancing rate, respectively, the amounts will differ significantly.
We make a calculation
Let’s now calculate the interest on borrowed money. We assume that the debt for goods amounted to 100,000 rubles. The term of use is eight days. 100 000/100 * 8.25 = 8250 rubles. This is the amount for the year, and we need to calculate for 8 days. According to regulatory documents, for the calculation of interest it is assumed that 360 days in a year means 8250/360 * 8 = 183.33 rubles.
Or you can use another formula to calculate:
Interest Amount = (Refinancing Rate * Debt Amount * Number of Delay Days) / 36000
We calculate according to this formula: (8.25 * 100000 * 8) / 36000 = 183.33 rubles. Use the calculation option that you find the most simple.
You can also find special calculators on the Internet that will allow you to quickly perform the calculation of interest on borrowed money. You will be required to enter the amount of debt and the period for which it was formed in a special table. The calculation is performed instantly. You will see not only the total amount, but also the amount for one day of delay in percentage and rubles.
The same formula calculates interest on taxes and fees, on debts for utilities and other payments. Knowing this formula will help you independently verify the correctness of calculating the amount of interest on your debts.
Regulations
The calculation of interest for the use of borrowed money is established by a number of regulatory documents:
- the most important document is the Civil Code, article 395;
- the beginning of the time interval for calculating interest is established in accordance with the provisions of Article 191 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation;
- the end of the time interval for calculating interest and data for days in a year for calculating interest at the Central Bank rate is established by Decree of 08.10.1998 No. 13/14, which is passed by the Plenum of the Supreme and the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation and article 316 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation
- a clarification of what kind of interest rate to be guided by is contained in Resolution No. 6/8 of July 1, 1996, which was passed by the Plenum of the Supreme and the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation;
- Refinancing rate data is available on the CBR website.
In fact, the calculation of interest on borrowed money contains an even greater number of nuances and subtleties, but in most cases the information specified above will be enough to invoice counterparties and collect penalties.