The Ministry of Finance sent out a letter on the issue of taxation of activities for the sale of SIM cards for mobile communications. OKVED “communication services” - decoding

1. How to confirm the validity of expenses for cellular communications.

2. How to register the use of personal phones and SIM cards by employees official purposes.

3. In what order are cellular communications expenses reflected in accounting and tax accounting?

Expenses for communication services are one of those types of expenses that almost any organization and individual entrepreneur has. Moreover, an increasingly large share of these costs is occupied by cellular communication services. And this is not surprising, because cellular, or mobile, communications make it possible to resolve work issues much more quickly, and for some workers the use landline phone It's simply impossible. So, for example, without mobile phones when carrying out labor activity employees cannot do without traveling character work, as well as whose work involves frequent business trips. Therefore, employers are faced with the need to provide their employees with cellular communications, and to do this in a way that takes into account the interests of employees and their own, while avoiding claims from the tax authorities. Read the article on how to do this.

Providing employees with cellular communications is possible in two options:

• Corporate cellular communication: the employer enters into an agreement with the mobile operator, and employees are given SIM cards belonging to the employer for use.

• Reimbursement of employee expenses for cellular communications: each employee enters into an agreement with a mobile operator on his own behalf and uses a personal SIM card for business calls.

The selected method (or combination thereof), as well as all essential conditions use of cellular communications by employees for business purposes must be secured in the local normative act. Such a document could be, for example, Regulations on providing employees with cellular communications.

In tax accounting, expenses for cellular communication services, including the payment of compensation to employees for cellular communication expenses, accepted both for calculating income tax (clause 25, clause 1, article 264), and under the simplified tax system (clause 18, clause 1, article 346.16 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). By general rule expenses for cellular communications must be economically justified and documented. Moreover, the procedure for documenting such expenses directly depends on the method of providing employees with cellular communications.

Corporate cellular communication

To confirm expenses for corporate cellular communications, you will need the following: documents(Letter of the Ministry of Finance dated June 23, 2011 No. 03-03-06/1/378):

• agreement with a cellular operator;
• invoice for services rendered;
• list of positions of employees who use cellular communications to perform work, approved by the head of the organization labor responsibilities. The specified list of positions can be enshrined in a separate order or specified in the Regulations on providing employees with cellular communications.

In some cases, the following is also required:

• invoice – for VAT taxpayers for the purpose of deducting “input” VAT (clause 1 of Article 172 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
• a document confirming payment for the services of a cellular operator - for organizations using the simplified tax system (clause 2 of article 346.17 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

In addition to the listed documents, tax inspectors often request additional documents confirming the economic justification of expenses for cellular communication services:

• job descriptions of employees who use cellular communications, as confirmation that the use of cellular communications is necessary to perform their job duties;
• employment contracts ( collective agreement) with employees, which stipulate the conditions for providing cellular communications or provide a link to the relevant local act (Regulations on providing employees with cellular communications);
• details of bills for communication services, which indicate the telephone numbers of all subscribers with whom negotiations were conducted, as confirmation that the negotiations were of a work and not personal nature.

As for the detailing of bills for cellular communication services, the mandatory nature of such a document is ambiguous. The Ministry of Finance in some letters indicates that detail is required (Letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated January 19, 2009 No. 03-03-07/2, dated June 5, 2008 No. 03-03-06/1/350, dated July 27, 2006 No. 03-03- 04/3/15). However, courts in most cases do not consider the lack of detail as a basis for not accepting expenses for cellular communications. tax accounting(Resolutions of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow Region dated June 22, 2010 No. KA-A40/6056-10, dated January 29, 2010 No. KA-A40/14759-09-2, Federal Antimonopoly Service dated May 23, 2008 in case No. A55-10554/07). Basically, the courts refer to the fact that the Tax Code of the Russian Federation does not contain a requirement for mandatory confirmation of communication expenses with a detailed invoice. In addition, the detail contains only telephone numbers, however, it does not reveal the nature and content of the conversation (business or personal).

! Please note: If you decide to “insure yourself” and confirm the validity of expenses for cellular communication services by detailing your bills, you must keep in mind that if there is detail, it will certainly become the subject of an audit by the tax authorities. That's why the details need not just be attached to the invoice, but actually checked and cut off all personal conversations (that is, include payment for them in tax expenses it is forbidden). It is advisable to reflect the fact that the details have been verified, for example, by placing a mark on the document itself, indicating the date and signature of the responsible person.

Accounting for phones and SIM cards

With the “corporate” option of providing employees with cellular communications, SIM cards with telephone numbers “linked” to them belong to the employer and are issued to employees for use. However, SIM cards by themselves, as you know, do not work: you need phones (or other devices). And here, as a rule, one of two options is used:

• telephones are purchased by the employer and given to employees for use;
• workers use personal phones. In this case, employees may be paid, or.

A third option is often encountered: the organization does not have its own cell phones, and the use of employees’ personal phones is not formalized in any way. At the same time, cellular communications costs are regularly taken into account based on invoices issued by the operator. In this case, the legality of accepting expenses for cellular communications will most likely be questioned by tax inspectors. However, taxpayers have a chance to prove their case. Firstly, the Tax Code of the Russian Federation does not contain a requirement for the mandatory availability of telephones for the recognition of communication expenses (25 clause 1 of Article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Secondly, the courts have more than once sided with taxpayers, confirming the legality of accepting expenses for cellular communications for tax accounting even in the absence of telephones (Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the North-West District dated April 24, 2007 in case No. A56-33529/2006; Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow Region dated July 21, 2005 No. KA-A41/6715-05). And yet, in order not to give tax officials an extra reason for complaints, it makes sense to take care of documenting the use of cell phones by employees.

As for SIM cards, the cost of their acquisition may be reflected:

• as part of material expenses (clause 3, clause 1, clause 2, article 254, clause 5, clause 1, article 346.16 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). If the connection fee is greater than the amount credited to the account as an advance payment, then the difference will be the cost of the SIM card;
• if the entire amount paid upon connection is credited to the account, then the cost of the SIM card is zero, and the paid amount is taken into account as an advance for communication services.

Since SIM cards are the property of the employer and are transferred to employees for temporary use, it is advisable to keep off-balance sheet accounting of SIM cards with analytics on phone numbers and employees.

! Please note: The transfer of the SIM card (and phone) to the employee must be documented. For this purpose, you can use the procedure established in the organization for documenting the movement of goods, or develop and approve special forms of primary documents, for example, a log of issuing phones and SIM cards to employees. Documentation transferring SIM cards to employees serves as proof that a specific employee uses a specific telephone number, and if limits on cellular communication expenses are established, this will be the basis for collecting from the employee the amount exceeding the limit.

Setting limits on cell phone spending

If employees are provided with corporate cellular communications, the organization does not have the opportunity to selectively pay the operator for the cost of services: they will have to pay the entire amount indicated in the invoice, which the employees “talked” about. Therefore, in order not to overpay for personal conversations of employees, most often they are set limits on expenses for cellular communications or use an unlimited tariff.

• Unlimited tariff

The unlimited tariff has a significant advantage: you do not need to control the amount of employee expenses, since the fee for communication services is fixed and does not depend on the number and duration of calls (subscription fee). In addition, as the Ministry of Finance explained, paying for cellular communication services at an unlimited tariff does not prevent them from being taken into account for tax purposes (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated June 23, 2011 No. 03-03-06/1/378).

However, in some cases, it is more profitable for organizations to use a time-based tariff, and this, in turn, involves setting limits on cellular communications expenses for employees. If such limits are not set, all the benefits from using a time-based tariff may be canceled out by a large number of “extra” calls and, as a result, “extra” expenses.

• Setting limits

The fact of establishing limits on expenses for cellular communications for employees, as well as the amount of these limits, must be fixed in a separate order of the manager or in the Regulations on providing employees with cellular communications and made known to employees using corporate cellular communications.

Despite the fact that setting limits is primarily an internal measure aimed at disciplining employees, it should be kept in mind that for inspectors the presence of limits means only one thing: costs for cellular communications exceeding these limits are economically unjustified for the organization, and, accordingly, are not accepted for tax accounting purposes.

Of course, communication expense limits set for employees should be as close as possible to actual costs. But even this does not guarantee that the limits will not be exceeded. In case employee exceeding the limit established for him costs for cellular communications, the following options are possible:

1. Exceeding the limit is caused by business needs (for example, using cellular communications on a business trip abroad, etc.).

In this case, it makes sense to make a one-time increase in the limit on cellular communications expenses for a specific employee. The increase in the limit must be documented by issuing an appropriate order from the manager (the basis may be a statement or memo from the employee indicating the reasons for the overexpenditure, as well as details of the invoice for communication services confirming the business nature of the calls).

1. Exceeding the limit is not related to the performance of work duties (making personal calls from a work number, etc.).

The fact that the above-limit cellular expenses are indeed personal in nature and not business-related can be confirmed by the itemization of the bill. In this case, the amount exceeding the limit:

• may be contributed by the employee voluntarily or collected from the employee as compensation material damage caused to the employer (Chapter 39 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). With this option, the amount exceeding the limit:
  • is not the employee’s income subject to personal income tax;
  • not subject to insurance premiums;
  • taken into account as other expenses for tax purposes only after reimbursement by the employee. In this case, the amount of compensation paid by the employee (or collected from him) will be taken into account for tax purposes in income (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated October 13, 2010 No. 03-03-06/2/178).

! Please note: the employer does not have the right to produce on his own initiative.

• may be “forgiven” to the employee. The amount of exceeding the limit, which is not reimbursed by the employee and is not collected from him, that is, paid at the expense of the employer:
  • is recognized as the employee’s income in kind and is subject to personal income tax (clause 1 of Article 2010, clause 1 of clause 2 of Article 211 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
  • subject to insurance premiums (clause 1, article 7 of Law No. 212-FZ);
  • is not taken into account in expenses for tax purposes (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated October 13, 2010 No. 03-03-06/2/178).

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, providing workers with cellular communications can be organized in the form of payment of compensation for cellular communications expenses. As a rule, with this option, compensation includes both payment for the use of employees’ personal cell phones for business purposes and reimbursement of expenses for communication services.

The processing and taxation of compensation for the use of personal cell phones is generally similar to the procedure that applies to any other personal property of employees, such as cars. You can read more about this in the articles: and.

To confirm the validity of compensation for cellular communications costs, the following will be required: documents(Letters of the Ministry of Finance dated October 13, 2010 No. 03-03-06/2/178, Ministry of Health and Social Development dated August 6, 2010 No. 2538-19 (clause 3)):

• a list of positions of employees who use cellular communications to perform job duties approved by the manager;
• employee job description;
• an employment contract or other written agreement between the employer and employee, which establishes the amount and procedure for payment of compensation;
• a copy of the employee’s agreement with the cellular operator;
• a copy of the invoice for communication services, as well as details of the invoice, as confirmation of the “working” nature of the calls.

Compensation for cellular communications costs is usually established:

• in a fixed amount - in terms of compensation for the use of a personal cell phone;
• in the amount of actual expenses or within the established limit - in terms of reimbursement of expenses for cellular communication services.

Documented amount of compensation for employee expenses for cellular communications:

• not subject to personal income tax and insurance contributions (clause 3 of article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, subparagraph “and” clause 2 of part 1 of article 9 of Law No. 212-FZ, Letter of the Ministry of Finance dated 04/20/2015 No. 03-04-06/22274 );
• accepted for profit tax purposes and under the simplified tax system, as expenses for payment for communication services (clause 25, clause 1, article 264, clause 18, clause 1, article 346.16 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Accounting for cellular expenses

	Credit
Corporate Communications
20 (26, 44)	60	The cost of cellular operator services is reflected (to the extent not exceeding the established limit)
73	60	The cost of cellular operator services is reflected (to the extent that it exceeds the expense limit established for a specific employee)
50 (50, 70)	73	The employee was reimbursed for the excess amount of expenses for cellular communications
91-2	73	The excess amount of expenses for cellular communications is written off as other expenses (in case of non-reimbursement by the employee)
Reimbursement for cell phone expenses
20 (26, 44)	73	Compensation accrued to the employee
73	50 (51)	Compensation paid to employee

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Regulatory framework

1. Tax Code of the Russian Federation
2. Federal Law No. 212-FZ dated July 24, 2009 “On insurance premiums in Pension fund Russian Federation, Foundation social insurance Russian Federation, Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund"
3. Letter of the Ministry of Health and Social Development dated 06.08.2010 No. 2538-19
, .

On October 1, the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court considered a dispute about the taxation regime for organizations and individual entrepreneurs applied to activities related to the sale of express payment cards and SIM cards. The question, we note, is very relevant in the age of rapid development of mobile telephony and, as a consequence, entrepreneurial activity in this area. Quite often, tax forums discuss the legality of applying “imputation” to this type of sale. Taxpayers, trying to protect themselves in advance from disputes with controllers, ask questions about their right to sell payment cards and SIM cards through a chain of stores for cash. They are interested in what type of activity such sales fall under and what taxes they should be subject to.

Enterprising people are trying to find clever ways to recognize card trading as retail for the purposes of applying a special regime in the form of UTII. They are looking but cannot find. There are disputes and disagreements everywhere, escalating into litigation. Yes, and among the referees, as the analysis shows judicial practice, until now there has been no uniformity in resolving disputes with similar circumstances.

On the right to use “imputation”

The situation through the eyes of officials and referees

Specific situation: a taxpayer (organization or individual entrepreneur) trades in express payment cards and SIM cards, which he purchases from a mobile operator dealer for their further sale. The communication shop through which trade is carried out has an area trading floor less than 150 sq. m. A fair question that arises in the course of this type of activity: is it subject to transfer to a special regime in the form of UTII?

According to clause 2 art. 346.27 Tax Code of the Russian Federation translated into “imputation” retail through shops and pavilions with a sales floor area of ​​no more than 150 sq. m for each trade organization facility and retail trade through stationary facilities trading network that does not have trading floors, as well as through non-stationary retail chain facilities. Retail trade is a business activity related to the trade of goods (including in cash, as well as using payment cards) on the basis of retail purchase and sale contracts, the subject of which is the transfer to the buyer of goods intended for personal, family, household or other use not related to business activities ( Art. 492 Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

According to Art. 38 Tax Code of the Russian Federation goods are any property sold or intended for sale. Property refers to types of objects civil rights(except for property rights) related to property in accordance with the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Objects of civil rights include things, including cash and documentary securities, other property, including non-cash funds, uncertificated securities, property rights; results of work and provision of services; protected results of intellectual activity and means of individualization equivalent to them (intellectual property); intangible benefits ( Art. 128 Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

From the above, we can conclude that entrepreneurial activity in the sale of express payment cards for communication services and SIM cards purchased as property for further sale on one’s own behalf through a communication store with a sales area of ​​less than 150 sq. m, can be classified as retail trade and transferred to the taxation system in the form of UTII.

This is the official position of the Ministry of Finance (see, for example, letters dated 07/05/2007 No. 03-11-04/3/253 , dated June 15, 2009 No. 03-11-09/211 ).

It should also be taken into account that express payment cards and SIM cards can be sold within commission agreements . Article 990 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation It is established that under the commission agreement, one party - the commission agent (in our case, the taxpayer, clarifying the issue of the lawful use of “imputation” by him when carrying out this sale) undertakes, on behalf of the other party - the committent (organization - telecom operator) to carry out one or more transactions for a fee on its own behalf, but at the expense of the principal.

According to officials, the activities of a commission agent in retail trade are subject to UTII if he sells goods on his own behalf through a trade organization that belongs to him or is used by him in business activities on legal grounds(ownership, rental). In addition, if the commission agent sells goods on retail space leased from the principal, then such activity is also subject to transfer to a special regime in the form of UTII (see, for example, letters dated December 24, 2007 No. 03-11-04/3/512 , dated 30.03.2010 No. 03-11-11/84 ). The exception, according to the Ministry of Finance, is activities carried out on premises owned by the principal: it is subject to taxation in the generally established manner or using the simplified tax system.

Next important point concerns situations in which the sale of cards is carried out within the framework of agency agreement , concluded between the taxpayer and the telecom operator. In this case, such activities should be taxed within the framework of the general taxation system or simplified taxation system. According to the Ministry of Finance, if express payment cards and SIM cards are sold by an organization under an agency agreement not on its own behalf, but on behalf of the principal (who has all the rights and obligations under the transaction), then such activities are subject to taxes under the general taxation regime or simplified taxation system (USNO) letters dated October 26, 2011 No. 03-11-11/269 , dated 30.03.2010 No. 03-11-11/84 , dated 12.02.2009 No. 03-11-06/3/30 ).

Does a taxpayer-agent acting as an agent have the right to apply imputation? on my own behalf (this possibility is also included in clause 1 art. 1005 Civil Code of the Russian Federation)? Some judges give a negative answer to this question (see, for example, Resolution of the FAS VSO dated 04.06.2009 No.  А10-3076/08-Ф02-2539/09), noting that in any case, the execution by an agent of an agency agreement is a type of activity different from retail trade. The agent in this case plays the role of an intermediary who receives an agency fee as a result of his activities. Types of activities subject to UTII taxation are named in clause 2 art. 346.26 Tax Code of the Russian Federation, and without mentioning in it mediation activities. Accordingly, the taxation system in the form of UTII in similar situation should not be applied, and income in the form of agency fees is taxed at common system taxation or simplified taxation system.

In any case, the arbitrators, considering the circumstances of very numerous disputes, tried to find out whether the organization acted as a seller in a retail purchase and sale of goods transaction, or whether the activity of selling express payment cards for communication services and SIM cards was carried out within the framework of agency agreements concluded with telecom operator-principal.

Thus, some arbitrators believed lawful application of a special regime in the form UTII retail sellers of express payment cards for communication services and SIM cards (see, for example, Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Eastern Military District dated March 13, 2009 No.  A43-6112/2008-6-104, FAS Central Election Commission dated October 14, 2008 No.  A48-4840/07-13). At the same time, the courts analyzed the terms of the agreement itself and the documents presented, on the basis of which the following points were clarified: where the taxpayer sold the cards (in retail outlets or not), on the basis of what documents he received cards from counterparties, on what terms he sold them - on his own behalf or not (whether he punched a check using a cash register). And if the circumstances of the case confirmed that the organization purchased goods from counterparties under waybills for the purpose of resale, then entrepreneurial activity in the sale of express payment cards and SIM cards acquired in ownership for the purpose of retail sales, the arbitrators qualified it as retail trade, and the income received was considered subject to UTII taxation.

However, more often, judicial authorities consider express payment cards and SIM cards as a means of pre-payment for relevant services. That is, the sale of such cards, in their opinion, is considered not retail trade, but the provision of services for their distribution. FAS NWO, based on a systemic interpretation Art. 209, 454 , 491 , 492 Civil Code of the Russian Federation, indicated that, as a general rule, the seller, in relation to the goods he sells, must have the rights of the owner or other limited property right, from which follows his authority to dispose of the property that is the goods ( Resolution No. dated 08.12.2010  A44-2366/2010). The judges noted that the taxpayer did not acquire ownership of the cards, but assumed obligations to collect advance payments for communication services provided by cellular operators and distribute cards in accordance with the operators' tariffs with payment of remuneration to him. Under the terms of the agreement, the taxpayer, for a fee, entered into subscriber agreements on behalf of the telecom operator (signed up a connection to cellular communication services), accepted payments for the services of telecom operators, including through the sale of payment cards. In this regard, the court decided that payment cards for telephone services cannot be recognized as a product having consumer properties, since, along with cash and other forms of payment, they are a means of payment. The person selling the said cards acts in such legal relations as a settlement organization. Making payments for telephone communications provided by a telecom operator does not fall under the type of business activity subject to UTII taxation..

IN Resolution dated April 23, 2013 No.  A21-9381/2011 FAS NWO indicated that express payment cards and SIM cards could not act as property used for resale within the framework of concluded sales and purchase agreements in the retail trade, since they did not meet the characteristics of the goods listed in Art. 38 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. At the same time, according to paragraph 24, 25 Rules for the provision of communication services telephone services are provided on the basis compensation contracts. The parties to the agreement are legal entity(IP), on the one hand, and the telecom operator, on the other. In force clause 1 art. 64 Communications Law Payment for communication services is made through cash or non-cash payments - immediately after the provision of such services by making an advance payment or with deferred payment.

The payment card for telephone services contains information encoded in a certain way, which is used to communicate information about payment for telephone services to the telecom operator ( clause 108 of the Rules for the provision of communication services). Such a card is a means of preliminary (advance) payment for these services, providing access to them. The card seller does not provide communication services. This service will be provided to the subscriber by the telecom operator after the card is activated and the subscriber has a telephone connection with his correspondent.

As part of the concluded agreements, the taxpayer sold the telecom operator’s products at prices established by it. At the same time, the taxpayer provided services not to subscribers, but to the operator itself. It turns out that the activity within the framework of the concluded agreement was not retail trade and in relation to it the application of a special regime in the form of UTII was unlawful.

Please note

Previously, officials claimed that express payment cards cannot act as property used for resale within the framework of concluded sales and purchase agreements in the retail trade sector (Chapter 30 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). They also do not meet the characteristics of the goods defined by Art. 38 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, since by their nature they are only a means of preliminary (advance) payment for telephone services not yet provided and a form of obligation within the framework of concluded contracts for the provision of communication services in accordance with Chapter. 7 of the Communications Law and ch. 39 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Also, according to the Ministry of Finance, SIM cards are not goods, since with the help of them the telecom operator provides access to the service it provides. Therefore, activities related to the sale of express payment cards and SIM cards for the purpose of applying a special regime in the form of UTII cannot be recognized as retail trade and must be taxed under the OSNO or simplified taxation system (USNO) Letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated March 27, 2006 No. 03-11-04/3/164 , from 10.01.2006 03-11-05/1, dated June 22, 2005 No. 03-06-05-04/173 ).

Dispute resolution by senior judges

Let's consider Resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated October 1, 2013 No. 4907/13 . In the case referred to the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court, the taxpayer, an individual entrepreneur, sold at retail (in accordance with the procedure clause 2 art. 346.23 Tax Code of the Russian Federation) through a rented store, express payment cards and SIM cards purchased for resale from a cellular operator.

Controllers during the field visit tax audit came to the conclusion that the means of payment for cellular communication services and access to it were the property of legal entities, the remuneration was received by the entrepreneur under agency agreements and, accordingly, was not subject to UTII taxation. These conclusions were confirmed during the trial: the businessman carried out activities in providing communication services exclusively on behalf of and at the expense of organizations that have the right to provide such services. Business activity in this case was carried out on the basis of agreements concluded with cellular operators.

The entrepreneur, as a commercial representative, was entrusted with the obligation to transfer in full all amounts received under subscription agreements cash, to ensure strict accounting and control over the use and storage of SIM cards, to provide inventory reports on the balances of SIM cards within one day and to return all SIM cards that were not sold by him for the period specified in the contract. For services rendered, the entrepreneur received payment from the principal in the form of an agency fee.

The senior judges, having assessed the terms of the contracts concluded by the entrepreneur and taking into account the provisions Art. 38, 346.26 , 346.27 Tax Code of the Russian Federation, Art. 1005 Civil Code of the Russian Federation, ruled that the disputed cards did not meet the characteristics of the goods and, by their nature, were only a means of pre-payment for telephone services, providing access to such services, and the entrepreneur actually assumed obligations to collect pre-payments for services provided by the cellular operator and distribute cards according to the operator’s tariffs with the payment of an agent’s fee. Accordingly, the entrepreneur’s activity was not retail trade and was not subject to UTII taxation, and the agency fee received by the entrepreneur for the sale of express payment telephone cards and SIM cards was his income from the provision of services and should have been taxed under the general taxation regime.

This is how the highest arbiters resolved the dispute. Frankly speaking, for the author, not all issues were resolved with the release of this resolution. See for yourself: the entrepreneur has simply become a hostage to a situation in which the main role (far from in favor of the businessman) was played by the same agency agreement concluded with the telecom operator, which gives the relationship an intermediary character. We have already said that the courts initially excluded intermediary operations from being subject to the single tax (which follows from the rules tax legislation). Now the VAC has confirmed the position that has been developing over many years.

Let us note that the entrepreneur (the losing party in the lawsuit) confirmed his actions with official explanations from the Ministry of Finance ( letters no. 03-11-04/3/253 , №  03-11-04/3/512 ), which also indicated that entrepreneurial activities for the implementation on my own behalf express payment cards and SIM cards purchased from a cellular dealer into the property , through a communication salon with a sales area of ​​less than 150 sq. m, still can be attributed to retail trade and transferred to “imputation”. It turns out that in this case it is simply incorrect (precisely for the purposes of applying the norms of Chapter 26.3 “Taxation system in the form of a single tax on imputed income for individual species activities" of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation) from a legal point of view, formalized the contractual relationship with the telecom operator. In other words, if there is no evidence in the case materials contractual relations within the framework of the agency agreement, perhaps the outcome of the case would have been different. Moreover, we have already given examples of court cases in favor of the taxpayer, where the activity of selling express payment cards and SIM cards acquired by him for the purpose of retail sale was qualified by the arbitrators as retail trade, and the income received was considered subject to UTII taxation (see. , for example, Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Eastern Military District dated March 13, 2009 No.  A43-6112/2008-6-104). The whole question is in the correct qualification of the transaction and its proper execution.

Consequently, in the author’s opinion, it is still too early to put an end to the long-standing dispute. Not all issues have been resolved. Only one has been resolved so far: now, without a doubt, the taxation system in the form of UTII does not apply to business activities related to the sale of express payment cards and SIM cards carried out on the basis of agency agreements concluded with cellular operators.

IN modern conditions mobile phone is an indispensable attribute of the life of most Russians, and even more so, it is almost impossible to imagine a working person without a means of communication. For organizations mobile operators develop special tariff plans, which can significantly reduce the cost of cellular communications.

At the present stage of development of the country's economy important role in interaction and economic development business structures plays a role in the telecommunications sector, and, in particular, the cellular market. This area not only serves as a necessary condition for the effective functioning of enterprises in all industries, but also energetically influences the management processes themselves. The role of cellular communications in economic development is determined by the fact that, through the introduction of the latest information and communication technologies, it makes it possible to include both consumers and producers in a single information space not only Russia, but the whole world. As an integral part of a market economy, it ensures the rapid transmission and dissemination of information flows, and, therefore, is the most important factor in increasing the competitiveness of enterprises. In modern conditions efficient use information resources necessary for any company. Segmentation Information target market allows the company to identify marketing opportunities. Information is needed to clearly define competitive advantages company and its strategic positioning. Finally, information about a company's strategic position in the market is required to build an effective business strategy based on competitive advantage. Under these conditions, increasingly high demands are placed on business structures in the telecommunications sector.

Demonopolization of the telecommunications sector led to increased competition in the cellular communications market, the emergence of new types of communications and alternative operators, which contributed to the structuring of the market and increasing its transparency. However, the emergence of new types of communications has brought to life new problems associated with the diversification of the activities of telecommunications enterprises. In the current conditions, the effective functioning of business structures in the cellular communications market is possible only by identifying the main consumer preferences and motives of consumer behavior, as well as by solving the problem of choosing the preferred method of servicing the target market. In this regard, the development of methodological approaches to forecasting the activities of entrepreneurial structures in the telecommunications sector in order to develop a strategy for their market behavior is becoming relevant.

The financial condition, competitiveness, and, accordingly, the prospects for economic development of business entities depend on a huge number of factors. In most cases, the economic results of an organization's activities are directly related not only to the conclusion of profitable contracts, but also to the reasonable and rational use of the organization's resources, both material and labor. To a large extent, savings are achieved through the use of the most attractive and favorable prices and tariffs offered by suppliers. The role of tariff plans becomes especially important when using certain goods, works or services in the daily activities of the organization. There is no doubt that the category of such “fixed” expenses includes communication services, in particular mobile (cellular).

In modern conditions, a mobile phone is an indispensable attribute of the life of most Russians, and even more so, it is almost impossible to imagine a working person without a means of communication. Every day, cellular operators offer an increasing number of tariffs that meet the needs of different categories of users. Almost all companies providing cellular communication services provide different tariffs for individuals and business entities. In particular, corporate tariff plans are especially popular among organizations and individual entrepreneurs, the advantages of which are well known:

Low subscription fee or its complete absence;

The lowest possible cost for outgoing calls to the most frequently used directions;

Wide range of additional services;

Flexible system of discounts depending on the intensity of conversations and the number of telephones registered to the organization;

Preferential long-distance/international calls;

Intranet roaming at reduced rates and others.

Large organizations have long appreciated the effectiveness and ease of use of corporate tariff plans. Currently, cellular operators are paying increasing attention to organizations and individual entrepreneurs, belonging to the category of small and medium-sized businesses, for which special tariffs are developed. In particular, when using corporate tariffs, each employee, taking into account his or her job responsibilities can use additional discounts on the most popular areas when connecting special services. Corporate tariffs, as a rule, are structured in such a way that they can be optimized for any employee depending on his type of activity.

As practice shows, the use of these tariffs allows not only to significantly reduce the cost of cellular communications, but also to minimize document flow, which is especially important for organizations and entrepreneurs, “in which every person counts.” Cellular operators provide special services within the framework of corporate tariffs, which, for example, allow you to make calls to the phones of company employees for free, or there is no charge from the second minute of the call. In addition, corporate tariff plans may provide for the provision of such “useful and necessary” services as “caller ID”, “call waiting”, “mobile office”, “ mobile internet" and some others without any payment.

There are several most promising directions, following which will allow market players to achieve significant success in the coming years. These include:

1. Seamless migration of broadband to mobile All-IP to meet the ever-growing needs of the industry.

2. Providing premium class IP services to provide subscribers with high-quality services and the benefits of reliable communications.

3. Application of original creative solutions in order to expand the subscriber base and increase ARPU.

4. Improving the efficiency of narrowband communications through expanding the coverage areas of the urban network.

5. Promotion of single access points to meet the needs of horizontal integrated radio networks and support voice services, offering narrowband data services and broadband services mobile communications.

6. Creation of large-scale networks to handle the ever-increasing data traffic.

7. Introduction of new voice transmission models into the operator environment.

8. Provide necessary bandwidth performance, such as intelligent traffic management and processing of high-speed data traffic.

9. Support for traditional telecom operators, using their extensive subscriber base to provide content transmission and multimedia services.

The development of these areas will help optimize the construction and support of networks around the world, the main advantages of which will be quality and the ability to quickly respond to various requirements. Humanity is becoming increasingly dependent on information technology and therefore no single society will be able to function normally outside the global information network. This is the reality of the development of modern societies in the world.

The globalization of the economy generates a flow of information that is increasingly increasing in volume and rapidly changing in content. All this has an impact on people’s activities and entails certain economic consequences, often on a fairly large scale. According to a prominent German public and statesman X.D. Genscher, “access and use of information, knowledge and communications have today become the fourth factor of production, along with land, capital and labor.” Information technology today has become a branch of the global economy. Currently, scientific and technological progress is reaching a new higher level, and one of the areas of breakthrough is information technology: the combination of a computer and modern means communications.

Entrepreneurial activity in the field of telecommunications in each country has its own specifics. However, the advent of digital technologies and the massive introduction of services to provide Internet access have led to the fact that today almost any telecommunications operator operates not only in the local (regional or national) but also in the global telecommunications services market. The advent of digital technology has brought about radical changes in the telecommunications industry. Traditional voice communications have begun to be replaced by interactive services, such as the Internet, data transmission, and mobile communications.

The creation of a Russian information and telecommunications infrastructure should be considered as the most important factor in the rise of the national economy, the growth of business and intellectual activity of society, and the strengthening of the country’s authority on a global scale. Rapid development of telecommunications – necessary condition development of business infrastructure, formation favorable conditions to attract foreign investment and solve employment issues.

The domestic market for communication services remains quite closed. On the one hand, this is due to the huge scale of the country’s territory, thanks to which the main income of telecom operators is formed. On the other hand, Russia is still outside the global international traffic market, which until now has been a consequence of the insufficiently high level of digitalization of main channels and lower quality of communication compared to world standards. However, in lately The quality of long-distance communications in the country has improved significantly, and its role in the international transit of telecommunications services has begun to increase.

Recently, the globalization of national markets for communication services has been taking place. If previously the business activities of the national operator were limited to the borders of their own country, now the largest telephone companies provide services abroad. This becomes possible mainly through the acquisition of large stakes in foreign operators.

Telecommunications mergers and acquisitions have had mixed results.
On the one hand, the globalization of communication services markets inevitably leads to changes in the capital management of operators; on the other hand, the sweeping “wave” of mergers contributed to the fact that “absorber” companies issued too many bonds to finance acquisitions, which led to a decrease in credit ratings many of them and had a negative impact on the stock market.

Telecommunications in the leading countries of the world are perhaps the most dynamic sector of the national economy. Throughout the post-war period, the pace of its development was high and almost unaffected by the deterioration of economic conditions. All Western economic and structural crises only slowed down investment activity, but did not in any way restrain the growth of the industry: the worse things are in the economy, the higher the need for quick, complete and comprehensive information. And the higher the organization of society, the brighter this trend. The rapid growth rate of communications is an objective pattern of a highly industrialized economy, reflecting its needs for adequate information support. There is a clear empirical relationship here: the volume of information flows transmitted by means of communication should increase at least in proportion to the square of the growth of the country's economic potential. In other words, the economy’s needs for communication services are met if the growth rate of information flows is at least twice the growth rate of GDP. Thus, the degree of development of telecommunications is one of the significant indicators of the maturity of the national economy.

Unlimited access to any information is perhaps the main achievement of recent decades. However, as useful as information is, it is also dangerous in inexperienced hands. In order to somehow regulate data flows and monitor the activities of specialized organizations, the Government of the Russian Federation, together with some government agencies developed whole list areas that an entrepreneur has the right to engage in. This list is posted in OKVED-2. Communication services are marked with the letter “J" and are located adjacent to other directions, related in meaning.

Many people don’t even realize how large-scale and multifaceted this section is. After all, the first thing that comes to mind when you mention this phrase is telephone, Internet, television and radio. However, this section is clearly not limited to this. Telephone services in OKVED-2 represent only a hundredth of all opportunities included in this list.

It is worth saying right away that an entrepreneur or legal entity planning to provide services in this area should pay attention to several classes in this section. These are the classes:

• 60 – sphere of television and radio;
• 61 – telecommunications services;
• 62 – consulting services in the information field and development of specialized software;
• — information support.

The fact is that by indicating just one of the codes or groupings, you may not cover the entire breadth of your activities. And any inspection by the tax or other regulatory authority will quickly reveal the violations committed, and then impose penalties on you. Therefore, when registering a new business entity, you should carefully study all the provisions in the above classes and their subclasses. This is the only way you will minimize the risk of making a mistake and the need to re-issue important official documents.

Now let’s look in more detail at some of the areas that are the most common in business environment in our time.

Key areas

In the telecommunications section, two main groups can be distinguished that fully describe this type of activity. These are wired and wireless communication services.

Wired communication includes communication services according to OKVED, provided using specialized wired equipment - switches, caller numbers, telephone bases and nodes, wire lines and much more. In addition, this also includes the Internet, access to which is provided through a cable connection through switches and other specialized equipment. Server and call centers also refer to wired communication services.

Wireless communication relates to mobile operators, mobile communications equipment for transmitting data, voice, content, etc. In other words, if you are planning to open a new mobile network on one of the allowed frequencies, you will need codes from this grouping. Wireless Internet through satellite signal distribution, preparation of radio broadcast packages, satellite TV are also part of wireless communications.

There is another section that includes codes that are not classified according to any criteria. This includes managing satellite terminals and systems, working with various specialized databases, specialized computing equipment, etc. According to new edition OKVED, Internet services are fully included in this class. So if you are planning to open own business in this direction, pay attention to it.

Information technologies and their types

There is another massive cluster, without which it is difficult to imagine modern society. We are talking about information services. Hundreds and thousands of companies in every country work every day for the benefit of people, helping them find the necessary data through various bureaus and help desks, agencies and companies providing such services. Journalists, editors, correspondents and editorial staff - all these people are employed in the field of information technology. Here is the creation of all kinds of specialized resources, blogs on the Internet, forums on specific topics, profile pages, etc. Due to its massive size in OKVED information services received their own class under the number. It contains all the necessary information for registering a new business entity in this environment.

Modern realities

However, it rarely happens that an enterprise operates exclusively in one of the selected classes, because in the field of information dissemination many paths intersect. Therefore, when filling out registration documents, it would be useful to first determine the main type of activity, and then add a few more additional ones in a related profile. You may not need it now, but over time, when the organization begins to develop and expand, such measures will allow you to avoid unnecessary visits to the Federal Tax Service to supplement the specified list.