Being an integral part of the tax system of the Russian Federation, excise tax is a fee that is mandatory for all individual entrepreneurs, as well as for legal entities selling products of a certain nomenclature. At the same time, fiscal payments are included in the cost of the products sold, and the buyer is forced to pay them as a result of the acquisition of certain goods, for example, tobacco products or alcoholic beverages.
Thus, excise tax is an indirect tax imposed on highly profitable and definite products and products intended for consumption by the population and which are a state monopoly. Such payments become an opportunity to fill the state budget, as well as a way to regulate consumer demand for a certain group of goods.
Elements of taxation and payers
At present, excise tax can be considered established only in cases where its payers, as well as the constituent elements, are determined. The main elements usually include the definition of the object of taxation and the base on the basis of which the size of the indirect fee, the payment period and the established rate are calculated.
The number of payers includes organizations and all private entrepreneurs selling excisable goods, as well as persons involved in the transportation of products of this group across the border of the Russian Federation. In addition, the excise tax is required to pay separate units of large firms that carry out operations with various excisable products.
Excisable goods
According to the current legislation, the excise duty is required to be paid only in the case of operations with a certain list of nomenclature products. Such a list includes alcohol-containing products, natural alcohol and alcoholic drinks, cigarettes and beer, motor and straight-run gasoline, motor oil and diesel fuel, as well as automobiles.
Moreover, some types of excisable products, subject to certain restrictions, may be exempted from taxation. These are alcohol-containing products belonging to the group of medicines, veterinary preparations poured into small containers, which include alcohol, perfumes and some types of waste.
Bets
The tax code of the Russian Federation has a procedure for calculating excise taxes, and tax rates are divided into combined, differentiated and solid. Moreover, the excise tax may be calculated differently for each of the nomenclature groups of excisable goods. For example, the differential rate is set when dealing with gasoline, and when selling high-quality fuel, the seller will have to pay a lower fee. Firm rates, in turn, are subject to indexation in accordance with the planned consumer price change index.
And tobacco products and alcoholic beverages must be labeled with the help of federal or excise stamps intended for this purpose, the presence of which on the goods sold confirms the legality of their production, or import into the territory of the Russian Federation. Alcoholic beverages must be labeled in order to control the payment of tax to the budget, as well as monitor the legality of their production and protect citizens from the acquisition of counterfeit products.
Federal stamps are used to mark products manufactured by domestic enterprises, and they are issued in special state institutions authorized by the government of the Russian Federation. In contrast, excise stamps are required to control the sale of alcoholic beverages imported from abroad, and they are purchased by importers directly from the customs authorities at the time of authorization.