Being a small or medium-sized business is very profitable. They have a simplified procedure for accounting, cash discipline and document flow. Tax rates have been reduced for them, and various types of “tax holidays” are allowed to them. Let's figure out what criteria have been established in 2018 for micro-enterprises and small businesses.

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Small businesses: who belongs to them in 2018

In order for your company to be included in the list of small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), three conditions must be met. There must be a certain share of participation of the founders, and the average headcount and all income of the company must not exceed the limit specified by law.

However, first of all, it is necessary to understand who can be considered a small or medium-sized enterprise.

First of all, micro, small and medium-sized businesses include:

A more detailed list of subjects can be found in Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 209, part 1.1, article 4.

First SME Criteria 2018

As for the first of the three conditions, this is, of course, the share of participation of the founders. Article 4 of Federal Law 209 states that a company can obtain small status only if the following rule is observed:

• the total share of participation in the authorized capital of a limited liability company does not exceed 25%. As for foreign capital, its share should not exceed 49% of the total number of shares;

Such a shareholding limit may be bypassed by companies that comply with other conditions, namely:

1. the company's shares listed on the stock exchange belong to the shares of the innovation sector;
2. the company or enterprise is legally considered as a participant in one of the Skolkovo projects;
3. The activities of business companies consist in the practical application or implementation of the results of intellectual activity, the exclusive rights to which belong to the founders of such a company.

This criterion helps classify an enterprise as a small or medium-sized business using its organizational and legal form. However, there are also two quantitative conditions that the Federal Tax Service also considers before classifying an enterprise as a small or medium-sized business.

Criteria for small and medium enterprises 2018: table

We have collected the criteria for small and medium-sized enterprises that are valid in 2018 in a convenient table.

Maximum values ​​for the average number of employees for the previous calendar year
	microenterprise
From 16 to 100 inclusive	small business
From 101 to 250 inclusive	medium enterprise
The amount of income from the company's business activities for 12 months
Does not exceed 120 million rubles	microenterprise
Does not exceed 800 million rubles	small business
Does not exceed 2 billion rubles	medium enterprise

Important: The law allows, instead of income, to use another indicator - the book value of assets (the residual value of fixed assets and intangible assets) for the previous calendar year. The calculation takes into account the residual value of fixed assets and intangible assets, which is assessed according to accounting rules. However, it does not indicate the maximum residual value values, so this criterion is often not accepted by departments.

Example. Can a company be classified as small if all conditions are not met?

At the end of 2017, the Romashka company had the following indicators:

According to two of the three criteria, the company could be classified as a small business, but the share of the founder is twice as large as necessary. Therefore, Romashka does not automatically enter the SME register. If a joint stock company can reduce the share of founders to 24%, then it will be classified as a small company.

Important: It must be remembered that if a company is included in the register, and for three years in a row it does not fit into its maximum values, then it will be removed from it after this period.

In what order does the Federal Tax Service classify a company as an SMP?

The company is not required to submit any information to the tax department or write an application for benefits. With the help of the registry this now happens automatically. Tax officials classify companies as small based on the information they routinely provide, which includes:

Using the register located on the official website of the Federal Tax Service, you can check whether a particular counterparty belongs to a small business or not.

Benefits of a small business

It should be noted that enterprises with small status receive the right to use certain benefits in the field of accounting. These include the following points:

• The right not to set a limit on the cash balance in the cash register. If it was established earlier, management can issue an order to cancel it;
• Ability to maintain simplified accounting;
• Preferential conditions for special taxation, which are established at the regional level;
• Reducing the inspection period by state regulatory authorities - for small enterprises it is 50 hours per year;
• Some categories of individual entrepreneurs receive a two-year tax holiday, which must be specified in the regulatory legal acts of the region.

By observing all of the above conditions, the company not only automatically receives the status of a small company and is entered by the tax authorities into a special register of small and medium-sized businesses in Russia. She also receives a number of pleasant bonuses from the tax department. Just remember that it takes more than two years to stay within the limit. Otherwise, the company will automatically cease to be considered an SME.

Small business entity - the criteria for 2018-2019 represent legally defined conditions under which organizations and private entrepreneurs can be classified in this category. We will tell you in our article what criteria small or medium-sized businesses (hereinafter referred to as SMEs) must meet.

Legislation regulating issues of small and medium-sized businesses, criteria for classification as such in 2018 - 2019

Relations in the field of SME development are regulated by the provisions of the Law “On Development...” dated July 24, 2007 No. 209-FZ. Clause 1 of Article 4 of the said regulatory act establishes that SMEs include persons (economic entities, partnerships, production cooperation companies, agricultural farms and individual entrepreneurs) who have passed state registration in accordance with current legislation and meet a number of requirements.

The list of conditions, compliance with which gives the right to belong to SMEs, is established in clause 1.1. Art. 4 of Law No. 209-FZ and consists of 4 indicators (we will talk about them a little later).

In addition to the basic regulatory act, the package of documentation in the field of application of indicators of relevance to SMEs includes other acts and letters, including:

• letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated August 18, 2016 No. 14-2-04/0870@;
• rules approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 8, 2014 No. 1335;
• Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation “On the limit...” of November 22, 2017 No. 1412;
• Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation “On Limits...” dated 04.04.2016 No. 265.

In addition, judicial practice helps to resolve this issue, for example:

• Resolution of the 9th Arbitration Court of Appeal dated July 19, 2017 No. 09AP-20234/2017 in case No. A40-227420/16;
• ruling of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated October 19, 2017 No. 305-KG17-16725 in case No. A40-216724/2016.

Criteria for small and medium-sized businesses in 2018 - 2019

The circumstances that allow businessmen to be classified as SMEs include (clause 1.1 of Article 4 of Law No. 209-FZ):

1. One of the following indicators (for business entities or partnerships):

• the total share participation of the state, religious and/or public organizations, charitable and other stock companies in the share capital of the LLC is no more than 25%, with the total percentage of ownership of foreign companies or firms not related to SMEs being no more than 49%;
• classifying the company's securities as shares of an innovative economic cluster;
• carrying out activities related to the use of the results of intellectual creativity, which is a key activity if the copyright holders for such results are state scientific institutions, state organizations of higher education;
• the organization has the status of a participant in the Skolkovo Information Center project;
• affiliation of the company’s founders with organizations that provide state support for innovation activities and belong to public joint-stock companies (PJSC) with state ownership in the share capital of 50% or more; companies in which the specified PJSC are authorized to dispose of a block of more than 50% of voting shares; state corporations; companies created as a result of the reorganization of the Republic of Kazakhstan nanotechnologies.

1. The average number of the workforce does not exceed the established limits.
2. The total income does not exceed the maximum standards established for each group of SMEs.

Medium and small businesses - criteria for inclusion in 2018 - 2019 based on staff size

According to sub. 2 clause 1.1 art. 4 of Law No. 209-FZ, if the persons involved meet one of the conditions of sub. 1 clause 1.1 art. 4 listed above, then in order to recognize these persons as SMEs, the average number of members of the labor collective should not exceed:

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• for microenterprises - 15 people;
• for small enterprises - 100 people;
• for medium-sized merchants - 250 people.

At the same time, for some medium-sized companies there is a clarification, according to which the Government of the Russian Federation may establish other standards for the average number (subclause 2.1, clause 1.1, article 4 of Law 209-FZ). These persons include businessmen whose key type of business (with a revenue share from this production of at least 70% of the total amount) is:

1. Production of textile products.
2. Making clothes.
3. Production of leather and leather products (manufacturing).

The final indicator of the average number of employees for these persons was established by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation “On introducing changes...” dated November 22, 2017 No. 1412 from December 5, 2017 - no more than 1000 employees.

Medium and small business entity - criteria for 2018 - 2019 regarding income

Income that allows persons falling under the criteria of subclause to be classified as SMEs. 1 clause 1.1 art. 4 of Law No. 209-FZ, defined in sub. 3 clause 1.1 art. 4. However, the norm in question is a reference one and only indicates that the boundary values ​​of this indicator are established by the Government of the Russian Federation.

By Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 04.04.2016 No. 265, from 01.08.2016 the following maximum volumes of income from business activities for the past year were introduced for SMEs:

• for microenterprises - 120 million rubles;
• for small enterprises - 800 million rubles;
• for medium-sized enterprises - 2 billion rubles.

The procedure for applying the criteria for small and medium-sized businesses

In addition to the direct indicators by which the status of the person involved as an SME can be determined, Art. 4 of Law No. 209-FZ contains a number of rules explaining the procedure for applying these conditions (clauses 3-5 of Article 4):

1. The group of SMEs is determined based on the value of one of the conditions given in Art. 4 of Law No. 209-FZ (by income or by average number of employees).
2. If an individual entrepreneur who did not have employees in the reporting (last) year applies for the status of a SME, small business criteria relating to the amount of income received are applied to determine ownership.
3. Companies and individual entrepreneurs created and/or registered during the period from August 1 of the current year to July 31 of the following year (hereinafter referred to as newly created merchants) and individual entrepreneurs with a patent taxation system are classified as micro-enterprises.
4. If a project partner of the Skolkovo Information Center is exempt from the obligation to submit tax reports, his group of belonging to SMEs is determined based on the average number of employees.
5. Correction of the category of an SME entity occurs sequentially in the event of an increase or decrease in the maximum standards. In this case, indicators for 3 years are taken into account.
6. Changing the category of a newly created merchant (both an organization and an individual entrepreneur) takes into account the indicators listed in Art. 4 of Law No. 209-FZ, when deleting from the register of SMEs an indication that a particular person involved is a newly created merchant.
7. Newly created/registered merchants included in the register of SMEs declare compliance with the conditions for classification as SMEs in the form approved by Order of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia dated March 10, 2016 No. 113. Thus, they provide a reason for classifying them as one or another group.

Small, medium and large businesses - comparison of criteria 2018 - 2019

Microenterprises, small and medium-sized businesses should be distinguished from each other. It is also necessary to clearly define the boundaries between these individuals and large businesses, since this is important for assessing the presence or absence of rights to support measures established by Law No. 209-FZ.

Obviously, if the person involved does not fall under the conditions defined in Art. 4 of Law No. 209-FZ, then it cannot be included in the register of SMEs. Thus, the following merchants can be classified as large businesses:

• not meeting at least one of the requirements listed in subparagraph. 1 clause 1.1 art. 4 of the same law;
• having a team whose average number exceeds 250 units;
• having income over the past period of more than 2 billion rubles.

Thus, with regard to medium and small businesses, the criteria in 2018 - 2019, as before, are clearly regulated by Law No. 209-FZ, which makes it possible to clearly distinguish between business entities. Since the provisions of this law are quite difficult to understand, in the article we have presented them in an accessible form.

You will also be interested in reading the materials that we wrote specifically for our Zen channel.

That small businesses that are not subject to mandatory audits have the right to simplified accounting. In our directory we provide criteria by which enterprises are classified as small and micro. At the same time, we will also mention medium-sized enterprises.

Small and medium-sized businesses include:

• business entities and partnerships;
• production and consumer cooperatives;
• peasant (farm) farms;
• individual entrepreneurs.

An organization will be classified as a small business entity (SME) if it meets all the criteria specified in the table.

Table. Small Business Criteria 2017

№	Criterion	Limit value
		Microenterprise	Small business	Medium enterprise
1*	For LLC: Total share of participation in the authorized capital of LLC of the state, constituent entities of the Russian Federation, municipalities, public, religious organizations, foundations
2*	For LLC: Total share of participation in the authorized capital of LLC of other organizations that are not small and medium-sized businesses, as well as foreign organizations
3	For all: Average number of employees for the previous calendar year	15 people	100 people	250 people
4	For all: Income from business activities (sum of revenue and non-operating income) excluding VAT for the previous calendar year	120 million rub.	800 million rub.	2000 million rub.

* For exceptions, see clause 1, part 1.1, article 4.

From 01.08.2016 to 01.07.2017, joint stock companies can be classified as SMP only in rare cases. Namely: if they simultaneously meet criteria 3 and 4 specified in the table, and at the same time fall into one of the categories of organizations listed in paragraphs. “b” - “e” clause 1, part 1.1, art. 4 . For example, if the shares of a joint-stock company are traded on the ORTSB and belong to the high-tech (innovative) sector of the economy (Letters of the Federal Tax Service dated 10.10.2016 No. GD-4-14/19140@, dated 07.09.2016 No. SD-4-3/16672@).

Register of NSR subjects

The law does not require any special registration or confirmation of the status of a small business entity. It is sufficient that the organization meets the established criteria.

Since 01.08.2016, all information has been accumulated in the Register of Small and Medium Enterprises (Register of SMEs), the inclusion and updating of data in which occurs automatically based on data from the Federal Tax Service of Russia.

Loss of EMS status

An organization will lose its status as a small business entity if the maximum share in the authorized capital is exceeded. This will happen from the date of change according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

If the criteria for the number of employees and income are exceeded, then for three consecutive calendar years the organization will be considered an SMP entity.

Example.

Let's assume that in 2017 the company's income will increase significantly and become higher than the established limit. This is not critical for the organization: according to Part 4 of Art. 4 You can continue to enjoy the benefits established for this category of legal entities. For example, in 2018, the amount of revenue will not change, but the staff will increase (more than 100 people). And this is not a reason to deprive such an organization of the advantages established for small businesses. And an organization can lose its small status only in 2020, and only if in 2019 it fails to meet the established maximum limits on revenue and number of personnel.

To make a decision on choosing a form of running your own business, you need to know about all the types of benefits that current government regulation provides to different types of enterprises.

For businesses that can be classified as small enterprises, tax and other benefits are provided, and permission is given to apply a simplified accounting procedure.

To begin with, an accountant needs to know that a small enterprise is not a separate organizational and legal form, but a set of business criteria:

• amount of income
• number of employees,
• participation shares in the authorized capital of an enterprise in Russia, regions of the country, municipalities.

Small enterprise - eligibility criteria

Small businesses are usually created in the form of an LLC. Small enterprises, if they meet the necessary requirements, also include individual entrepreneurs and peasant farms.

The aspects by which a business is considered small often change. The last changes to date took place in 2008. Connected with the economic policy of the state and the level of inflation.

So in 2014, an organization will be recognized as small if:

1. the state share of participation in its authorized capital is not higher than 25%;
2. it was not formed during the reorganization or privatization of a state-owned enterprise;
3. profit from production or provision of services for the past year does not exceed 400 million rubles;
4. the average number of employees of the enterprise over the past year is no more than 100 people.

The criteria for determining the amount of profit are determined, as a rule, by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. When calculating the number of employees, all employees are taken into account, including those hired under civil contracts and in branches.

A newly formed legal entity can be registered with the inspectorate as a small enterprise immediately after creation and within a year from the date of creation (subject to meeting the criteria for income and number of employees).

An existing business must meet the above criteria for at least 2 consecutive years preceding the year of application.

New organizations must submit an application within a month from the date of their registration, existing ones - no later than December 31 of this year in order to have a chance to take advantage of the benefits from January 1 of the new year.

A small enterprise can choose to apply both the regular form of taxation and the simplified taxation system or UTII

In addition, a small enterprise can choose the agricultural taxation system (UST) if it meets the requirements for the type of business, and the production of agricultural products is its main type of business.

Benefits for small businesses

The state helps small businesses with numerous benefits.

As a rule, city administrations provide preferential rates for renting premises from the city, benefits on regional taxes and fees.

Any subject of the federation has the right to decide for itself which of the taxes assigned to it will provide benefits to small businesses.

What is also important is that small businesses have the right to accelerated depreciation of basic assets (machines, real estate, other equipment), which allows them to reduce the overall amount of taxation.

There are also benefits for value added tax on leasing transactions.

For small businesses, there is a simplified system for purchasing leased real estate, established by Federal Law No. 159-FZ.

Small businesses pay taxes in accordance with Ch. 26.2 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, if they chose this particular system. As noted above, a small enterprise can remain on the general taxation system.

This is important in cases where the counterparty insists on the need to work with the VAT payer and partially reduce its costs for paying this tax.

Here you always need to choose, and if you plan to work primarily with such clients, then you don’t have to resort to a simplified system.

Although it is quite profitable and convenient. Under it, no income tax, property tax or VAT are paid, excluding that paid when importing products.

Personal income tax and social tax are subject to repayment in full

Income tax is replaced by one of two forms of income tax payment:

• on net income
• on income minus costs.

In the first case, 6% of all income must be paid, in the second, 15% of the difference between profits and costs is paid.

Not all types of expenses are considered expenses, but only some, defined by the Tax Code and named as a separate line. There, a closed list and the definition of “other expenses” are not used. Inspections always very carefully check the admissibility of different types of costs.

It is allowed to change the object of taxation no more than once a year. When setting it for the next year, the application to the tax office must be submitted no later than December 20 of the current year.

Accounting statements in small enterprises, accounting features

Small enterprises, within the framework of the simplified taxation system, use the cash method of calculating income.

That is, money is taken into account in accounting when it is received at the cash desk or into a current account, and not when it is accrued or issued an invoice.

Taxes are paid using the advance method. The advance payment is sent to the budget no later than the 25th day of the month from the beginning of the quarter.

It is calculated based on information from the previous tax period. At the end of the quarter, a recalculation and the necessary additional accrual occurs.

If the advance payment exceeds the actual payment due, the difference is offset against payment for future periods

Accounting statements are submitted once a year, at the end of the first quarter of the year following the reporting one.

The possibility of using a simplified taxation and reporting system for small businesses is a single benefit defined at the federal level.

In this case, there is no need to maintain a balance sheet. It is being replaced by fairly simple forms - a book of income and expenses (the form is established by the Ministry of Finance). It is carried out quite simply, without using double entry and a chart of accounts.

Until the beginning of 2003, only small enterprises could use the simplified taxation and reporting system; now, in accordance with Ch. 26.2 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, is also available to some other forms of doing business (individual entrepreneurs, peasant farms).

When maintaining accounting records, an accountant of a small enterprise needs to keep in mind the main thing:

• if the enterprise in the current year has gone beyond the scope of a small enterprise in terms of revenue or number of employees,
• it is obliged to return to the general accounting system from the beginning of such year and recalculate taxes.

For this reason, the attitude towards the criteria for classifying an enterprise as a small one should be very scrupulous.

If necessary, receive part of payments exceeding the permissible turnover volumes after the end of the annual period. In addition, it is necessary to scrupulously maintain primary accounting documentation so that the reporting can always be restored.

The choice of a small enterprise as a form of running your business is determined by many factors and is very convenient for practical and careful business, especially in the manufacturing sector.

On January 1, 2008, Federal Law No. 209-FZ dated July 24, 2007 “On the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the Russian Federation” (hereinafter referred to as Law No. 209-FZ) came into force. This law regulates the relations arising between legal entities and individuals, government bodies of the Russian Federation, government bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, local governments in the field of development of small and medium-sized businesses, defines the concepts of small and medium-sized businesses, support infrastructure for small and medium-sized businesses entrepreneurship, types and forms of such support.

Let us note that until this time the Federal Law of June 14, 1995 N 88-FZ “On state support of small businesses in the Russian Federation” (hereinafter referred to as Law N 88-FZ) was in force, which will become invalid from the moment Law N 209-FZ comes into force.

The concept of small and medium-sized businesses has undergone some changes in accordance with the new law. Thus, the new Law includes small and medium-sized businesses (Article 4 of Law No. 209-FZ):

• - consumer cooperatives and commercial organizations included in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (except for state unitary enterprises and municipal unitary enterprises);
• - individuals included in the Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs;
• - peasant (farm) farms.

Moreover, the entities listed above must meet the following criteria: only for legal entities - a limit of 25% of the total share of participation in the authorized (share) capital (share fund) of the Russian Federation, constituent entities of the Russian Federation, municipalities, foreign legal entities, foreign citizens, public and religious organizations ( associations), charitable and other foundations, as well as participation shares of legal entities that are not small and medium-sized businesses. The exception is the assets of equity investment funds and closed-end mutual funds.

The first criterion is the limitation on the average number of employees (regardless of the field of activity) for the previous calendar year:

• - for medium-sized enterprises - from 101 to 250 people;
• - for small businesses - up to 100 people.

Moreover, among small enterprises, the legislator identified micro enterprises, the average number of employees of which is up to 15 people.

The average number of employees is determined taking into account all employees, including those working under civil contracts or part-time, taking into account the actual time worked, employees of representative offices, branches and other separate divisions.

In Law N 88-FZ, the average number depended on the field of activity of the enterprise.

The second criterion is revenue from the sale of goods (work, services) excluding VAT, determined in accordance with the norms of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, or the book value of assets (residual value of fixed assets and intangible assets), determined in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation on accounting, for the previous calendar year year should not exceed the limit values ​​​​established by the Government of the Russian Federation.

The limit values ​​of the second criterion are left to the discretion of the Government of the Russian Federation, which will, by its resolution, determine them for each category of small and medium-sized businesses. According to the director of the Department of State Regulation in the Economy of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation, Andrei Sharov, such a resolution has already been developed and is being approved. The following revenue amounts have been determined: for microbusiness - 60 million rubles, for small businesses - 400 million rubles, for medium-sized businesses - 1 billion rubles.

Limit values ​​of assets will be established by the Government of the Russian Federation once every five years, taking into account data from continuous statistical observations of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Please note that this provision will come into force on January 1, 2010 (Clause 2, Article 27 of Law No. 209-FZ).

The category of a small or medium-sized business entity changes only if the limit values ​​are higher or lower than the established limit values ​​of the average number and revenue indicators for two calendar years following one another.

Newly created organizations and registered individual entrepreneurs can be classified as small and medium-sized businesses during the year in which they are registered, if the above indicators do not exceed the limit values ​​from the date of their registration.

Separately, it is worth noting that the legislator has reserved for small businesses that are currently receiving support in accordance with the provisions of the repealed Law N 88-FZ, if they do not meet the new criteria, the right to receive previously provided support until July 1, 2008 (clause 3 Article 27 of Law No. 209-FZ).

Thus, in accordance with this Federal Law, to classify an enterprise as small, three criteria must be taken into account: the number of employees and the participation of other organizations in the authorized capital of the enterprise and the book value of assets.

In international practice, three indicators are used to classify the relevant objects as small enterprises: the number of employees (usually up to 50 people), the volume of product sales and the book value of the property. Thus, we are getting closer to international standards.

Law N 209-FZ regulates in more detail the measures taken to implement state policy in the field of development of small and medium-sized businesses in the Russian Federation, which, in particular, include:

• - special tax regimes, simplified rules for maintaining tax accounting, simplified tax return forms for certain taxes and fees for small businesses;
• - a simplified accounting reporting system for small enterprises carrying out certain types of activities;
• - simplified procedure for the preparation of statistical reports by small and medium-sized businesses;
• - preferential payment procedure for state and municipal property privatized by small and medium-sized businesses;
• - features of the participation of small businesses as suppliers (performers, contractors) for the purpose of placing orders for the supply of goods, performance of work, provision of services for state and municipal needs;
• - measures to ensure the rights and legitimate interests of small and medium-sized businesses in the exercise of state control (supervision);
• - measures to ensure financial support for small and medium-sized businesses;
• - measures to develop infrastructure to support small and medium-sized businesses;
• - other measures aimed at ensuring the implementation of the goals and principles of Law N 209-FZ.

Thus, a small enterprise is a newly created or existing enterprise with a certain quantitative criterion for the number of employees and the volume of economic turnover. A small enterprise must be state-owned or leased, private or operating on the basis of some other form of ownership. Its activities are regulated by the charter approved by the founder. It has independence in carrying out its economic activities, disposes of manufactured products, profits remaining after paying taxes and other obligatory payments to the budget, and independently determines the forms, systems and amounts of remuneration.