The authorities will reduce the requirements for IT companies to receive tax benefits

The Ministry of Finance proposed to simplify the requirements for it companies applying for tax incentives - this will increase the number of participants in the tax maneuver. But how will the falling ₽20 billion from the budget be compensated,

The Ministry of Finance proposed to simplify the criteria for obtaining benefits as part of the tax maneuver: accredited IT companies with a share of income from IT activities of 70% and without restrictions on the number of personnel will be able to apply for participation in it. This follows from the draft amendments to the Tax Code developed by the Ministry (drawn up in the form of a draft law “On Amendments to the Russian Legislation on Taxes and Fees”, RBC has a copy, its authenticity was confirmed by a federal official). The document was approved by the Ministry of Digital Development, on Monday, May 23, the initiative was approved by the Government Commission on Legislative Activities, the interlocutor of RBC said.

The project also proposes to expand the composition of income that can be taken into account when calculating the 70 percent share: this is the sale of copies of computer programs or databases developed by the company, the transfer of exclusive rights to them, the provision of remote access to them via the Internet, the provision of services for the development or modification of programs or databases, for their installation, testing and maintenance, for the development of software and hardware systems, etc.

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The document was developed in accordance with the plan of priority actions to ensure the development of the Russian economy in the face of external sanctions pressure. The expansion of existing benefits will lead to a reduction in budget revenues by 20.3 billion rubles, of which 13 billion rubles. will amount to lost income tax and 7.3 billion rubles. - insurance premiums. Due to what it is planned to compensate for this amount, the document does not say.

A representative of the Ministry of Digital Development said that they, together with the Ministry of Finance, were developing amendments to the Tax Code as part of the execution of the decree of the President of Russia on IT support measures dated March 2 this year. “The relevant bill was submitted by the Ministry of Finance to the government in April in accordance with the established procedure,” he said. RBC sent a request to the Ministry of Finance and the government.

What does the tax maneuver imply now?

The changes, unofficially called the "tax maneuver" in IT, came into force in 2021. According to them, IT companies can qualify for reduced insurance premiums (in the amount of 7.6 instead of 14%) and a three percent income tax instead of 20% if they meet the following criteria:

receive at least 90% of income from the development of software and databases; have state accreditation as an organization operating in the field of IT; have a staff of seven or more employees.

To compensate for shortfalls in budget revenues, the zero VAT rate on software sales that was in effect earlier was cancelled. The benefit was retained only for companies whose products are included in the register of domestic software.

Why change the criteria

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Vasily Golovanov, DIRECTOR of the practice of providing tax services to enterprises in the field of communications, information technology and the media at Doveriya Technologies, considers lowering the threshold for qualified IT income from 90 to 70% a "long-awaited measure" that "should support the IT industry in the current conditions" . “Reducing the threshold to 70% does not mean at all that non-IT companies will be able to take advantage of the exemption. Such a threshold will enable IT companies not to limit themselves only in the implementation of qualified activities, but also to conduct other related activities, ”said Golovanov. For example, a game developer earns its main income from software licensing, as well as from in-game advertising, which was ancillary income.

“Historically, in order to maintain benefits, companies have often been forced to forego additional advertising contracts in order to meet the 90/10 ratio. With the expansion of the threshold, there will be no such restrictions, ”the expert noted. In addition, according to him, there will be new opportunities for companies developing software and hardware systems. Until now, many of them had to refuse benefits, because single teams worked on the software and hardware for these complexes, Golovanov explained. Or it was necessary to carry out this single type of activity in two legal entities: one for the development of software, which fell under IT benefits, and the other for hardware, which did not.

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The threshold criterion for the number of employees, according to him, in practice was only important for companies at the level of the first days of a startup, and its abolition "will allow very small companies to also qualify for IT benefits, which is extremely important at the project launch stage."

Ivan Begtin, HEAD of ANO Tsifrovaya Kultura, believes that Russian companies will benefit from the new criteria, as the list of those who fall under the tax maneuver will increase, especially for system integrators. “This is due to the fact that many integrators have licenses for the construction, for example, Data Processing Centers (DPCs), which do not formally fall under IT activities. Lowering the IT revenue threshold will help these companies,” Begtin explained. At the same time, he fears that the Ministry of Digital Transformation is introducing such measures on an emergency basis, without having had time to analyze the effect of existing benefits for the IT industry, which could lead to “unforeseen consequences that are difficult to predict at this stage.”

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Emil Baburov, director of the tax and legal department at Deloitte & Touche, assessed the amendments to the Tax Code as "positive", as companies will be able to more flexibly manage their income structure in order to receive benefits. At the same time, he believes that the number of applicants for benefits will expand, but "not significantly", since many have already "built or adapted their corporate structures" to fit the previously announced criteria.

In early May, the M.Video-Eldorado group announced that it was creating its own IT company, M.Tech, on the basis of the fintech services provider Direct Credit bought by the group in 2021. Previously, a similar restructuring of the IT business was carried out by VimpelCom (Beeline brand), Russian Post and others.