Electronic money. Uncut

We in Elba are often asked questions like “I'm a simplifier, I have an electronic wallet in Yandex.Money, how to take it into account in income-expenses and report to the tax?”

If you google, on the Internet you can find a lot of information and experience in this area. However, we want to save your valuable time, and therefore share our knowledge.

I am an individual and do not want to deal with pieces of paper

Often, entrepreneurs conduct settlements with customers through a regular physical wallet. Fortunately, now it’s just like twice two. Open a wallet in WebMoney, Yandex.Money or any other system you like. Then inform the client the wallet number or place the number on your website. And then withdraw electronic money to your card or withdraw cash from an electronic wallet through a bank transfer system. For a transaction, a payment system will take a commission - it is up to you or from your client. You will also pay to withdraw money - to your card, for example.

When calculating the tax base, the commission of the electronic payment system cannot be written off as expenses. Because the list of acceptable costs for "simplifiers" is closed and much shorter than for entrepreneurs on the general taxation system.

Until the Federal Law of June 27, 2011 No. 161-ФЗ On the National Payment System entered into force, electronic money cannot be equated to this. Some electronic payment systems consider them in-kind income, others - financial liabilities or securities. One way or another, electronic money is what has the equivalent in rubles.

In tax revenues, electronic money will be taken into account at the time of receipt in your electronic wallet. Let's look at an example.

Let's say you have an electronic wallet in Yandex.Money.

07/01 - You have acquired 1500 Yandex.Money. Including commissions (1.5%), your real costs were 1,522.5 rubles.

02.07 - you paid for the Internet - 600 Y. Money. No commissions.

03.07 - you received a payment from a client - 5000 Ya. Money.

07/04 - you have withdrawn 3000 Y. Money to the card. The commission of 3% is withheld. The map really turned out to be 2910 rubles.

08/01 - Yandex.Money provided you with a transaction report for July, which reflects all your operations.

In the book of income and expenses, you will need to make the following entries (consider the example of the simplified tax system "income minus expenses"):

No. p / p	Date and number of primary document	Contents of operation	Incomes taken into account when calculating the tax base	Expenses taken into account when calculating the tax base
1	03.07 Transaction number in electronic payment system	Payment from customer	5000
		Total:	5000

Thus, it is clear that payment of your business needs with electronic money cannot be taken into account in expenses, nor can you reduce income by the amount of the commission.

This situation will continue until certain provisions of the new Law 161-ФЗ On the National Payment System enter into force. We will talk about it below.

I am an individual entrepreneur or organization and I want “everything was according to the rules”

Of course, if you are an individual entrepreneur or legal entity, no one will forbid you to open a wallet on an individual, accept Yandex.Money, for example, and then withdraw them to your bank account in the same way as described above. Naturally, you will not write off commissions in expenses either.

And what should you do if you want to do everything “by letter” - and write off the commissions as expenses, and have formalized relations with the payment system?

You can arrange payment by electronic money in two ways:

1. Conclude an agency agreement directly with the payment system (WebMoney, Yandex.Money, etc.). This will save on commissions.
   
   
2. Conclude an agreement with an intermediary (payment aggregator), which will allow you to accept various electronic currencies for payment for goods or services and at the same time not have wallets in all of these systems (Assist, Money.Online, RBC-Money, Robokassa and etc). Document flow will be less, and more ways to receive money from customers.
   
   

When choosing a method, several factors should be taken into account: the planned volume of transactions, and the number of desired types of electronic money, and ease of use, and the quality of technical support, etc.

The point is that you do not open a wallet. Based on the agreement, all money transferred by your customers is transferred to your current account. In this case, the payment agent will automatically withhold a commission for receiving payments. You can take this commission into account in tax expenses.

Let's look at an example.

Within a month, customers paid for your product online. Every week you withdraw to your bank account for 100,000 rubles. (at the same time, the agent kept 5% from each transfer). On the 1st of the next month, the payment agent sent you a report on the accepted payments. In this case, you don’t need to show the agent’s commission in expenses, because in reality money comes to you with the commission already deducted.

If you have a simplified payment system with an “income” object, and the agent sends payment orders indicating the amount of the agent’s fee, then you will have to take into account the entire amount - 100%.

Your income and expense book will contain the following entries:

No. p / p	Date and number of primary document	Contents of operation	Incomes taken into account when calculating the tax base	Expenses taken into account when calculating the tax base
1	7.08 Payment order for transfer of funds	Transfer of funds under an agreement with an agent	100,000
2	14.08 Payment order for transfer of funds	Transfer of funds under an agreement with an agent	100,000
3	21.08 Payment order for transfer of funds	Transfer of funds under an agreement with an agent	100,000
4	30.08 Payment order for transfer of funds	Transfer of funds under an agreement with an agent	100,000
		Total:	400,000

“If you have a simplification with the object“ income minus expenses ”, then you can take into account the amount of the commission in expenses.

No. p / p	Date and number of primary document	Contents of operation	Incomes taken into account when calculating the tax base	Expenses taken into account when calculating the tax base
1	7.08 Payment order for transfer of funds	Transfer of funds under an agreement with an agent	100,000	5000
2	14.08 Payment order for transfer of funds	Transfer of funds under an agreement with an agent	100,000	5000
3	21.08 Payment order for transfer of funds	Transfer of funds under an agreement with an agent	100,000	5000
4	30.08 Payment order for transfer of funds	Transfer of funds under an agreement with an agent	100,000
		Total:	400,000	20000

But if the money is transferred to you in full, and you yourself transfer the commission to the agent, then the amount of income is recorded, as before, upon the receipt of the money. And the amount of expense (in the amount of the commission) is recorded with the date the money was debited from your current account (or the date of the agency report - whichever is later).

For fans of accounting, you can list the accounting entries:

Contents of operation	D	TO	Date of operation
The buyer pays for the goods or service (T / U)
The buyer transferred the funds to the wallet in the electronic payment system	76-5 "Settlements with the operator of the payment system (OPS)"	62 "Settlements with buyers and customers"	Date of receipt of payment message (transactions in electronic payment system)
Funds transferred by agent	51 "Current accounts"	76.5	Date of receipt of money from the agent (payment order). By this date we take into account tax income
Reflected the amount of the agency fee (this is if the agent withholds the commission immediately)	91.2 “Other expenses”	76.5	The date of receipt of the withdrawal amount and reporting documentation from the agent (agent report or transaction report). According to this date we take into account tax expenses
Reflected T / U implementation to the buyer	62 "Settlements with buyers and customers"	90.1 "Revenue"	On the date of transfer of goods / services to the buyer

Law “On the National Payment System”. And where do I and my company?

On September 29, 2011, Federal Law of June 27, 2011 No. 161-FZ “On the National Payment System” will enter into force. True, certain provisions of this law are legalized in about a year. Therefore, serious improvements for entrepreneurs are not yet expected. As well as significant changes in the process of interaction with electronic payment systems.

Among other interesting provisions of the new law is the clause that now businesses will be obliged to inform the Federal Tax Service Inspectorate about the opening of electronic wallets (letter from the Federal Tax Service Inspectorate on July 13, 2011 “On the Occurrence (Termination) of the Right to Use Corporate Electronic Payment Methods”).

This means that if you are an individual entrepreneur or organization, when creating a corporate wallet, for example, in Yandex.Money, you will be required to notify the tax authority within 7 calendar days. Otherwise - a fine of 5,000 rubles. (subparagraph 1, paragraph 2 of article 23, article 78 of the Tax Code). Similarly, you will need to notify the closure of the electronic wallet.

The costs that you pay with electronic money can be taken into account in taxes. BUT. There is a problem here - clause 9 of article 7 of the Law prohibits organizations and entrepreneurs from paying electronic money among themselves. Therefore, only payments to individuals will be able to get into expenses, for example, under GPC agreements.

Accounting for electronic money transactions for organizations is a little “combed”. To account for electronic money, it will be possible to create a sub-account “Electronic money” on account 55 “Special accounts”. It will be possible to replenish the corporate wallet only from the current account. It will also be possible to withdraw money through a current account. In this case, the commission of the payment system will fall into expenses.

Here are examples of postings for accounting for transactions with electronic money.

Contents of operation	D	TO	Date of operation
The buyer pays for our own wallet in the payment system
The buyer paid for the service	55.4 "El. wallet"	62 "Settlements with buyers and customers"	Date of transaction on the electronic payment system report
Withdraw money from email. wallet	51 "Current account"	55.4	Date of receipt on the account (cash desk)
The commission of the electronic payment system with e-mail is withheld wallet	76.5 "Settlements with the operator of electronic payment systems"	55.4	Not included in taxes. Date is the same as the date of withdrawal.
Payment system commission charged to expenses	91.2 “Other expenses”	76.5	We take into account taxes. Based on transaction report
Service provided	62	90.1
We replenish e-mail. wallet through a current account
Transferred funds from the calculation. email accounts wallet	55.4	51	On the date indicated in the bank statement
Reflected in the costs of the amount of the commission for replenishment of email. wallet	91.2	51	On the date indicated in the bank statement

As you can see, for business, the new law will rather streamline electronic means of payment, which is not bad at all.

In the meantime, the most appropriate way for a business seems to be to conclude an agency agreement with an electronic payment system or aggregator of payments. In this case, you can safely write off expenses and reduce your tax base.