In your opinion, is it possible to pay tax on income that you do not actually receive? It turns out that, moreover, this obligation can be confirmed by law. But how can this be? In order to deal with this circumstance, it is necessary to understand the meaning of such a term as imputed income. This is the potential amount of money that a taxpayer can receive in the form of income, engaged in a certain type of activity (a complete list of all types can be found in the Tax Code, article No. 2). It is calculated on the basis of a combination of factors affecting the entrepreneur's income and is the basis for the collection of the relevant tax.
The size of imputed income is not actual (real), but potential, which is charged with receiving for a particular type of activity. In fact, this is a compulsory amount with which tax will be taken in any case. And if you are not able to achieve it, then you should think about whether it is worth doing this type of business at all. In this case, it is assumed that if your real cash inflow is lower than the imputed income, this indicates the inefficiency of this type of activity and the need to take some measures (increase income or close / sell the enterprise).
The criteria that are taken into account for calculating this value can be the following: the number of employees, square meters of premises, productivity, flow of consumers and others. Thus, physical indicators are estimated (set "from above"), and not actual results of activity.
The single imputed income tax is a relatively “young” phenomenon in the Russian tax system. It was adopted in 2000 and remains valid to this day. The reasons for introducing such an indicator were explained as follows: for each type of activity there is a certain average amount of cash that an entrepreneur is able to earn per month. And the activity will be considered effective (profitable / expedient) only if it is possible to achieve this "basic income". It is worth clarifying that the tax is paid from this imputed value, adjusted for a number of factors. These include such parameters as the dynamics of profitability, adjusted for changes in the financial system of the Russian Federation (K1); territorial coefficient (K2).
The amount of imputed income, calculated taking into account K2, is the closest to real profitability and reflects the conditions of a particular enterprise in a particular region. It is this coefficient that shows the priorities of local authorities regarding the support of certain business segments, the provision of benefits to various categories of entrepreneurs, etc. Although it greatly complicates the process of calculating the tax base. The formula by which it is defined looks something like this:
VD = DB * (N1 + N2 + N3) * K1 * K2, where
VD is, of course, imputed income. DB - basic income, taking into account physical indicators (N1 / 2/3) and adjusted for ratios (K1 / 2). More details about each of them used in the case of a particular business activity can be found in the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.
Thus, when planning to engage in a certain type of business, you should take into account the imputed income calculated for it. This will allow you to understand how much you should focus on when creating a business plan, and try to exceed it by starting the actual implementation of your project.