Tax amnesty 2019 for individuals and individual entrepreneurs

The content of the article

• Who will forgive debt
• Conditions for writing off debts to individuals
• According to personal income tax
• Amnesty for IP
• Taxes for which the exemption is not applied
• Insurance payments
• Procedure and dates

The meaning of the “amnesty” proclaimed by the President of Russia in December 2017 and established by the Federal Law of December 28, 2017 No. 436-FZ is that citizens who have unpaid fiscal payments on time are written off this debt. The main reason for the tax amnesty is called a large amount of expenses for the collection of arrears.

Who will forgive debt

Although the tax amnesty procedure in 2019 applies only to certain deductions and certain periods, the ability to get rid of debts, penalties and fines is attractive for many. Tax amnesty in 2019 will affect:

• Citizens obliged to make separate fiscal deductions, for example, transport tax.
• Individual Entrepreneurs (IP).
• Private practitioners (lawyers, notaries, tutors, etc.).

An important circumstance is that debt relief does not apply to all fiscal payments..

For example, the debt on personal income tax is not canceled, it must be paid in the amount due.

Conditions for writing off debts to individuals

According to the established legislative norms, in 2019, an amnesty on taxes for individuals applies only to certain types of fiscal deductions. These include:

• land;
• transport;
• property.

Subject to cancellation are all debts for these taxes arising prior to 2015, as well as fines and penalties accrued prior to write-off. In this case, as a result of the amnesty, citizens have only debt on these taxes for 2015-2018 without any penalties.

According to personal income tax

The law does not provide forgiveness of income tax debts. This applies to the following income:

• remuneration for the services rendered (fees, etc.);
• gifts from legal entities or individual entrepreneurs;
• lottery winnings and similar events;
• dividends from shares and other profits from shares, securities and other assets.

The citizen is obliged to pay personal income tax on these income independently. Given that the cancellation of tax debt does not apply to these deductions, the debt on them is retained by an individual.

Accrued fines and penalties are also not canceled.

By law, the employer is required to independently accrue and pay personal income tax for employees from their salary. If a debt arises, it is repayable, since the amnesty does not apply to these amounts. Untimely transfer of these funds by the employer is the basis for attracting the debtor to tax, administrative or criminal liability. No action is taken against the employee himself.

Self-employed citizens in the period 2017-2018. Personal income tax was not charged.

Due to legislative changes, this tax holiday was extended for another year. For this reason, in 2019, private practitioners do not need to pay personal income tax.

Amnesty for IP

Individual entrepreneurs are debited debts arising prior to January 1, 2015, if it is associated with doing business. These are such contributions to the budget as:

• personal income tax;
• transfers related to the taxation regime used (“simplification”, etc.);
• value added tax.

As in the general case with all citizens, fines and penalties charged for non-payment of debts fall under the tax amnesty for entrepreneurs. At the same time, debts arising from 01/01/2015 are not written off and remain with the entrepreneur. If they are not paid, then they will normally begin to charge interest and other sanctions.

Taxes for which the exemption is not applied

For certain fiscal payments, tax exemptions do not apply. This includes deductions:

• Mineral Extraction Tax (MET).
• Customs duties on goods from foreign counterparties.
• Excise duty on statutory goods (e.g. gasoline).

Insurance payments

If an individual entrepreneur registered with the tax authorities before 01.01.2017, but later did not engage in entrepreneurial activity, his debts on contributions to the Pension Fund of Russia (PFR), social and health insurance are canceled. Fines and penalties are written off with them..

Moreover, if an entrepreneur has conducted at least one transaction during this period, he is not supposed to receive such a benefit.

Procedure and dates

To write off fiscal debts, the taxpayer is not required to prepare an application or fill out additional declarations. All debts falling under the amnesty will be automatically canceled without the participation of a citizen. At the same time, the law does not establish specific deadlines for writing off and does not provide for a notification of an individual about debt removal.

For those who want to check the current status of tax debt, there are two ways:

• appeal to the tax office;
• using your personal account on the website of the Federal Tax Service of Russia.