Tax preferences are special benefits established by law. An exact definition of this term is not contained in any legislative act. And this fact greatly complicates the application of tax benefits and preferences in practice. There is a certain difference between these concepts.
Kinds
There are tax preferences for territorial, sectoral, targeted, functional, urgent, and intravector. They are classified based on their functions.
Thus, the territorial form of tax preferences is aimed at supporting progress in a particular area and priority zone. For example, this concerns the allocation of a special economic, offshore zone and so on.
Sectoral tax preferences aim to stimulate various economic sectors. This may apply to space, aviation, education and so on.
Urgent preferences are the official support of taxpayers in order to minimize their debts. The main feature of this variety is that they are limited by the period of action. Therefore, such tax preferences are formalized only by the executive branch. This includes tax payments, restructuring of debts, installments, amnesty.
Targeted preferences are aimed at a certain category of taxpayers in order to support them. This group includes a simplified tax system, social benefits, discounts, investment credit.
Intravector preferences operate with respect to one tax. They are implemented by dividing rates, its regulation is carried out by law. This includes a progressive, regressive scale of taxation (the use of any of them depends on the policy pursued by the authorities), and a reduction in the rate.
Functional preferences provide for the use of the opportunity to reduce tax liabilities. This includes funds used by business entities to reduce the burden of obligations. That is, accelerated depreciation, loans and so on.
Total information
In order for the development of the economic component of the state to be successful, it is important to form an effective tax system. To achieve this goal, you need to think about many nuances. Tax preferences are an integral part of this system. They serve as a mechanism to reduce the burden on different categories of people. To do this, highlight the most important point. Many people perceive tax incentives and preferences as one and the same. But this is a fallacy.
When a privilege is used, it is always controlled by supervision. This is done by the tax authorities. They must be declared in the reports, while tax preferences are not displayed in the documents. They are needed to influence economic processes. They stimulate it, and sometimes slow it down. For example, there are tax preferences for small businesses to develop innovation and investment in various sectors of the economy. Often they are aimed at resolving social issues.
We need to take them as an opportunity for taxpayers to reduce their tax base. For example, sometimes export taxes are allocated 0% value added taxes. To master this moment, you need to familiarize yourself with Art. 217 of the Tax Code, also read Art. 171. It is noted there that 0% is a mandatory practice.
Taxpayers do not have the right to choose whether to use this mechanism or refuse it. 0% without exception. This situation is considered as a preference.
According to Balandin’s wording, tax preferences are the separation of individual advantages from the authorities for categories of taxpayers. This is expressed as a reduction in required payment amounts.
This implies a number of specific actions on the part of different categories of persons. For example, the capture of foreign markets. The definition of benefits is contained in the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. They are considered as a tool and as an element of taxation. The Tax Code of the Russian Federation notes that these privileges are granted to certain individuals and legal entities that have the right to do so under the law. This is expressed in a decrease in the amount of mandatory payments, which is important to do in favor of the state.
Tax incentives in Russia are also a tool for regulating fiscal functions. It should be noted that in the Tax Code of the Russian Federation this concept is given without special clarity. For this reason, there is space to interpret it in your own way. It is considered a little differently. Here it is necessary to mention the words of Barulin that tax benefits are rights, obligations and ways to reduce the number of duties of taxpayers.
Preferences in the law
The most important provisions regarding taxation are contained in Art. 217 of the Tax Code. There are many primary documents adopted by the State Duma that regulate this moment. You need to pay attention to value added tax, income.
As an example of preferences, one can cite the fact that the organizers of the Olympic Games have certain privileges. This is the most striking example of tax preferences for sports organizations. The tax system at the moment includes two hundred benefits and preferences.
Non-taxable income
There are a number of incomes that are not subject to taxes. For example, non-taxable income includes prizes that athletes receive in games. This applies to all companies that participate in the organization of games. A list of such income is contained in Art. 217 of the Tax Code. Payments to religious associations and public associations that provide services to people with disabilities are exempt from income tax. In the case of religious associations, income taxes are not exempted in cases where they earned profit for performing rituals.
Commercial tax incentives
In a broad sense, two crucial aspects stand out here. One of them is a simplified tax system. We are talking about individual entrepreneurs, as well as legal entities with annual turnover up to a certain point. The income of these categories is taken less tax.
The second direction is employment in the technology park and other similar enterprises. In such cases, a tax regime is provided when the rate is reduced, besides this, bureaucratic concessions are provided.
An important direction in the work of the state is the assessment of the effectiveness of tax benefits. Regular proposals for improving this system are formulated. At the moment, the gross product in the region is taken as the basis of estimates, the cumulative effect of taxes is taken into account.
About tax holidays
STS (simplified tax system) allows entrepreneurs to take advantage of tax holidays. However, this phenomenon is far from every IP. The thing is that the holidays are shown only for the first time registered as an individual enterprise. Many are surprised that the country does not have the same procedure for LLCs. The thing is that the legislator did not find a way out, how to cope with the bulk registration of new organizations.
Tax holidays are intended for those who were first registered as entrepreneurs, who are engaged in the activities of the legal list, those who have chosen a simplified tax system. Only the presence of all these conditions leads to a zero interest rate.
It is important to note that the right of persons to refuse benefits at their own discretion is recorded in Article 56 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation “The Establishment and Use of Tax and Duty Exemptions”.
What are the holidays? This is a period of total tax exemption. It applies only to those who have just started doing business. When it was announced that the legislator was considering this phenomenon, many expected the moment the law was introduced specifically, then to register as an individual entrepreneur after it was adopted.
Register an individual entrepreneur by TIN, which lasts a lifetime. For this reason, it is not difficult to track down those registered again in order to take advantage of the vacation again.
But there is nothing complicated in conducting the procedure for closing the enterprise, and then creating a new one with tax breaks, since the TIN of enterprises always changes. In this regard, the legislator has indicated many ways to deal with such a loophole. However, such a mechanism has not been implemented at the moment.
And now tax breaks are granted only to those who first went through the registration procedure. Moreover, they are not used in relation to those who registered before the law came into force.
Also, the legislation does not apply such a phenomenon throughout the country, but gives each region the right to introduce it at its discretion. No region has sought to do this in order to continue to receive income from taxes on individual entrepreneurs. It was calculated that the shortfall in revenues due to such an exemption amounted to 250,000,000,000 rubles.
Given the size of the official budget, this is not such a large amount. But on the other hand, the holidays lead to the fact that the population more often opens a business, gets on its feet and contributes to the replenishment of the treasury. And as a result, a larger number of regions apply tax holidays at home.
This phenomenon applies only to a number of areas of activity. The region also makes the final decision on which areas the benefits apply. It forms lists of OKVED codes related to the privilege. In addition, regional laws establish other requirements for individual entrepreneurs during the holidays.
Also, benefits are received only by those who have chosen the USN and PSN modes. They are not provided to the imputed regime and OSNO.
Despite the fact that the validity periods of the regional legislation in this area are prescribed until 2020, the individual entrepreneur receives a vacation of no more than two years. For the tax period, the year is taken when the individual entrepreneur has passed the registration procedure. So, if the legislation in the region was introduced in 2016, then only individual entrepreneurs who registered after the relevant regulatory acts came into force can take advantage of the benefit by applying it until the end of the year and including the next year. Thus, the term is less than two years.
In the world
Since ancient times, the state has developed areas of activity interesting to it, stimulating them or slowing down the introduction of preferences. So, in the USA they use tax prolongation aimed at increasing investments. In the Russian Federation, the main task is not to reduce the tax burden. The priority task in the country is to influence a number of processes taking place in the country through the introduction of certain measures. It is important to stimulate GDP, especially highlighting a number of industries. And here tax preferences play a big role. They are intended for certain groups of taxpayers, where special calculation procedures apply.
There are a number of methods for introducing preferences. Among them there is a deduction after the start of operation of objects, a deduction before operation. The first method is manifested in deducting the initial cost of the objects of preferences in the first 3 tax periods of operation or simultaneously in the tax period in which the object began to function.
The second method is manifested in the deduction of expenses for the construction, production, expenditures for the improvement of buildings, equipment before they are used in the reporting period in which the costs are incurred.
The benefits are canceled at the time of their use by reducing deductions in each reporting period, a multiple of the amount of preferences in which they were applied.
The objects of preferences, expenses for the reconstruction, improvement of buildings that are significant in production, equipment, separately from the installed assets for 3 reporting periods by taxpayers are taken into account.
The initial cost of preference objects, which are the main means, include expenses borne by taxpayers until the moment of using this object. This includes expenses for the purchase of objects, their formation, installation, other expenses that increase their price.
Investment preferences are exemptions for exempting income taxes. Although tax preferences are considered a kind of relief from the state, to get them, you need a whole stack of documents. At first, to obtain them, it was necessary to conclude an agreement with the Investment Committee.
The state supports through investment tax preferences motives in policies that are aimed at the development of production.
As part of the tax burden on enterprises engaged in commercial activities in special economic zones, special budget settlement procedures are used.
Legal entities engaged in activities in special economic zones must meet a number of requirements. So, they must be registered as taxpayers at their location in the tax authorities in the special economic zone. They must also be participants in a special economic zone in accordance with the law. They should not have structural units located outside the special economic zone. Legal entities - participants in the special economic zone - must have at least 70% of the income that is to be received from the sale of their goods and services.
About the current situation
In order to study this phenomenon in the Russian Federation, statistics on innovation activity were collected. Thus, it was found that 62% of the participants are aware of the methods of supporting research development. Although the participants are sufficiently informed, in practice, such methods are not very popular. Only one in four said that he was affected by the use of tax incentives. This was noted by 30% of the participants. Among the main reasons that people did not encounter preferences, there are fuzzy instructions according to which preferences are received. IPs also stated that there is no understanding which activity is considered innovative. And a third of the survey participants announced other reasons.
The results of these studies coincided with the statements made by enterprises in the field of small and medium-sized businesses. Among the reasons for which they do not use preferences, the exact same points are highlighted as above. Representatives of these enterprises evaluate the effectiveness of government activities at 25%. They considered the lowest efficiency in the field of energy, and the highest - in the pharmaceutical sector, as well as in industrial production. Probably, all this is due to the fact that it is more difficult for some taxpayers to understand tax legislation than for others. The research results showed that there are some "problem areas" in the state policy in the field of innovation.
Factors
The main factor that will increase innovative activity is the effectiveness of intervention in the tax sphere of official bodies. There are 2 large-scale trends that lead to increased attention to the effectiveness of preferences. For the same reasons, much attention is paid to the costs of stimulating innovation.
The first tendency is manifested in the growth of the contribution of innovation to increasing the competitiveness of states. A characteristic feature here is that authorities understand the importance of increasing levels of support.
The second trend is the complexity of research. Resources are limited; requirements for their effectiveness have been tightened.
In the Russian Federation, these two areas are expressed in tax documentation with programs. Their focus has changed. Initially, it stimulated economic growth to achieve the effectiveness of preferences, including enterprises that are engaged in innovation.
The main reason for supporting innovation is the presence of failures in the market, which is manifested in the fact that the return of organizations from investing in innovation remains incomplete. As a result, the mechanisms are intended to compensate innovative enterprises for lost profits, to stimulate the necessary investment attraction.
The results of the work are constantly being evaluated. Many studies have been conducted, they are different, expressed in empirical conclusions. But given the fact that information is limited, it is not so easy to get acquainted with the final information.
The main barrier to increasing the effectiveness of state support for many studies is the difficulties associated with bureaucracy. . , , . – . – , . , .
Conclusion
, . - , , , , . , .