Foreign customers and income legalization of a programmer in the Russian Federation. What should be done and how much will it all cost?

This is exactly the question I asked when, being a simple physical person and a citizen of the Russian Federation, I got a remote job as a software developer in one foreign company and began to receive wages in foreign currency. Having rummaged on the Web for the possibilities of legalizing your income, I did not find clear and accurate answers and guides. I had to look for information myself. I want to share the results of my research with everyone.

Immediately I write what came in the course of research:

1. IP on PSN
2. receipt of payment for software development services to the IP account in US dollars
3. basis for payment of an invoice, the amount of which does not exceed 200,000 rubles.
4. invoices are issued as needed
5. CCP not used

That is, I work calmly, at the end of the agreed period I form an invoice in which I indicate the amount agreed with the employer that does not exceed the specified threshold, I receive money directly to the current account, I pay a patent and contributions of 54,000 rubles or more once a year or throughout the year I don’t worry that tomorrow evil tax officials will come to me with a summons and terrible news (it was a moment of humor). Next year, this amount will grow to 60,000 rubles per year.

Why is that? What other options could there be? Why are Upwork, PayPal and Payoneer bad for me? I'll try to answer under the cut. Who cares about all these details, read on :-)

The first steps

Immediately on the device in the company I was offered to open an account in the Payoneer payment system, which I did. At first, he was in some kind of prostration from a new place of work, conditions and other things, and especially did not go into details of what is not directly related to work tasks. But having gotten a little accustomed, I decided to study the laws of our state that govern my finances. Since I do not possess the skill of reading and understanding various legal documentation, I turned to popular sources of information, such as Habr , Toaster , Lawyer and others like them. From what I read, I realized that I need to open an IP and conduct work through Upwork in order to avoid problems with VK (currency control) and quietly report to the Federal Tax Service (tax).

Starting point

Ruby script developer. Income of 100,000 rubles. per month (I take a spherical number in a vacuum for the convenience of calculations) or 1,200,000 rubles. transferred by a foreign organization in US dollars per year. It is designed as an IP, since self-employment in the Stavropol Territory is not yet provided for by our legislative bodies.

We consider:

• +100 000 rub. per month or +1 200 000 rub. in year.

Registration IP

Once upon a time, about 10 years ago, when I registered and then closed my first IP, it was a completely muddy and incomprehensible story for me. I paid some kind of wild money, something like several thousand rubles for helping me get everything right and the first time, standing for me in the lines of the local branch of the Federal Tax Service and so on and so forth. Now everything is much simpler. Almost all well-known banks provide this service for free (if you continue to cooperate with them) or for some symbolic money. I used the services of the bank where I had an account with an individual. The procedure took several days, and soon I became the owner of a new legal status.

An IP account is attached to the status, the maintenance of which, in most banks, costs from 1000-1500 rubles. with a monthly turnover not exceeding 150,000 rubles. (plus or minus in different banks) up to 1-1.5% of the receipt on the account of an individual entrepreneur in this bank, if this amount is exceeded.

My bank also encloses a plastic card in the account, which seemed to me quite convenient.

Also, the individual entrepreneur must keep the Book of Revenue Accounting, if it is on the simplified tax system (Simplified Taxation System) 6% (object "income") or on the taxation system (Patent Taxation System), where it is obliged to deposit all funds received on its account to the entrepreneur (later it turned out that this is not entirely true). You can do it yourself, but I preferred the services of an accountant who provided me with a bank for a modest 1000 rubles. per month.

Thus, the monthly costs of supporting an individual entrepreneur are:

• -1000 rub. + 1% of revenues in excess of their amount of 150 thousand rubles. per month.
• -1000 rub. payment for accountant services.

We consider:

• -2000 rub. per month or -24 000 rubles. in year.

Total:

• +98 000 rub. per month or +1 176 000 rub. per year, if you start from the point of reference.

Pay and sleep. Calm

Now I want to compare the tax systems that are available for software developers. I must say right away that I will not consider the DOS (General System of Taxation), since it is completely unacceptable here.

Taxes and fees under the simplified tax system "income"

For 2019, 6% of personal income tax, plus contributions to the PFR (pension) and FFOMS (medical policy), which are included in the tax amount, will amount to 81,000 rubles .

Here's the calculation: after income of 300,000 rubles per year, which is taxed at 6%, the remaining income is taxed at 7%. (300,000 rubles × 6%) + (900,000 rubles × 7%) = 81,000 rubles. Contributions to the PFR and FFOMS in 2019 amounted to about 36,000 rubles. and are included in the amount of tax.

The following should be noted here: if the income amounted to those same 300,000 rubles. for the whole year, then the tax on this income (18,000 rubles), on the contrary, would be included in the amount of contributions to the PFR and FFOMS (36,000 rubles). Thus, the minimum amount of taxes and fees for individual entrepreneurs on the simplified tax system for 2019 is 36 000 rub

An entrepreneur using USN is required to submit a tax return annually!

The income on the simplified tax system should not exceed 150,000,000 rubles per year!

We consider:

• -6 750 rub. per month or -81 000 rubles. in year

Total:

• +91 250 rub. per month or +1 095 000 rub. in year

PSN taxes and fees

Using the patent cost calculator on the website of the Federal Tax Service, I found out that, for my region (Stavropol Territory), settlement (municipality with a population of more than 150 thousand people), and type of activity (provision of services (performance of work) on the development of computer programs and databases data (software and information products of computer technology), their adaptation and modification), the cost of a patent in 2019 is 18,000 rubles. Do not forget about the mandatory contributions to the PFR and FFOMS in the amount of 36 000 rubles. in year. Total 54,000 rubles. per year !

An entrepreneur using an SPE must not submit a tax return!

Income on PSN should not exceed 60,000,000 rubles per year!

We consider:

• -4 500 rub. per month or -54 000 rubles. in year

Total:

• +93 500 rub. per month or 1,122,000 rubles. in year

My choice is PSN!

And if you remain an individual?

And it is quite possible. If you work with only one customer for a long period of time, you can completely receive payment in foreign currency from him directly to a bank account or to your PayPal or Upwork account, pay 13% of personal income tax, file a declaration once a year and live in peace.

We consider:

• -13 000 rub. per month or 156 000 rubles. in year.

Here we do not spend money on servicing accounts or bookkeeping, therefore I will start from a conditional amount of 100,000 rubles. per month.

Total:

• +87 000 rub. per month or +1 044 000 rub. in year.

Perhaps I would stop there if I knew about this option in advance. But I had several sources of income, at this point. And these sources are clearly visible even with the most superficial analysis of my bank accounts.

In addition, Upwork in this scheme is clearly superfluous, since at first it will tear as much as 12% for its services (10% standard fee plus 2% against VAT), which will make up 25% with personal income tax. To put it mildly, a little expensive. And then, after the amount of the relationship with the employer exceeds the coveted $ 10K, coupled with personal income tax, the amount of taxes will be as much as 19%, which is less, but not by much.

We consider:

• -19 000 rub. per month or -228 000 rubles. in year.

Total:

• +81 000 rub. per month or +972 000 rub. in year

PayPal with its 5% (3.9% + 1% + 10 rubles or $ 0.2, if the transfer is in bucks) of various commissions, in the amount with personal income tax is 18% of the amount of income, which is also not small.

We consider:

• -18 000 rub. per month or 216 000 rubles. in year.

Total:

• +82 000 rub. per month or +984 000 rub. in year.

But, nevertheless, if there is a desire to legalize with the least loss of time, the estimated amount of taxes and commissions is not a burden, then this method is the most acceptable.

In order not to be unfounded, here is the proof .

Payment systems

To a first approximation, we sorted out the tax base. Now about the legalization of income from abroad. Since they come in foreign currency, they are subject to articles 14 (parts 2 and 3) and 19 of the Federal Law on Currency Regulation and Currency Control and articles 7 (parts 8.1 and 9) of the Federal Law on the National Payment System. That is, foreign money intended to pay for my services should be credited to my bank account when it comes to receiving funds from foreign legal entities. Or to another organization authorized in the territory of the Russian Federation, if the funds come from a foreign individual.

Why not payoneer

Payoneer is not a bank, but a corporation that opens an account for you on which it deposits funds transferred to it by another user of the corporation's services for you. Nothing criminal, but since, unlike PayPal and Upwork, the company did not pass accreditation in our country and does not provide information about the accounts of citizens to authorized state bodies, such transfers to the accounts of individual entrepreneurs and legal entities are not legal in the Russian Federation. However, individuals do not have any legal restrictions on the use of Payoneer. It is worth noting a number of interesting facts related to this:

• funds that are on Payoneer accounts are not visible to our fiscal authorities
• purchases made with a Payoneer plastic card are not tracked in any way in our country

You can even pay personal income tax from some part of this money, for example, from what you turn into cash at an ATM, I don’t know why (:-)), but you have to remember about 115-FZ , according to Article 6, part 1.5, which , a Payoneer plastic card may be blocked by an ATM, as it falls within the definition.

That is, for citizens of the Russian Federation (by the occasion it is known that Ukraine is also) wishing to stay in the shade, Payoneer provides both wide opportunities and some risks. Do not forget that these ample opportunities are somewhat offset by the risk of blocking accounts (no confirmation), cards (no confirmation), extremely unprofitable conversion rate of the currency into rubles (confirmed, but I can’t give proofs yet), by various commissions inside Payoneer itself . The last two factors, with a rough calculation, make up 3-5% of the amount transferred / cashed out.

All this, together with the fact that when I found out about the details, the IP was already registered and it was too late to go into the shadows, led to the fact that using Payoneer became the day I was completely unacceptable.

Therefore, at first, I chose Upwork.

Why not upwork

Everything is good in Upwork. Here you have the protection of the contract, here you have a free tracker, here you have the background, in the form of a growing counter of time and earned money, which, in potential, can help find the next customer / employer. Yes, as I wrote above, this whole barrel of honey is overshadowed by a tar spoon in the form of a high, at first, commission. But with the income stated above, this commission drops to 6% after six months (and often earlier), and we come to 11%, which gradually and pleasantly decreases with the growth of monthly income. But still, this is not 5 or less percent that are available on PSN. But the background, but the guarantee!

Everything was fine until the evil hackers broke the employer's card, which was tied to his Upwork account. The money ran out on her and Upwork instantly suspended the contract. Thank you for your care, Upwork! He carefully did not even let the hours enter manually, which he wanted, so as not to ruin the established reporting system. And the apogee of concern was the deduction from my salary of returning $ 50 to the employer without coordination with me.

Money is small. But I was skewed by the way the system disposed of them in a businesslike way. Gopnik in the days of my youth, which fell on the 90s, were much more delicate, against the background of Upwork. In those years, before proceeding with the withdrawal of funds from the victim, they at least sent warning signals in the form of various phrases. Here, everything was done with the utmost confidence and arrogantly. Even my employer was surprised, what can I say about me.

We decided to look for other possibilities.

Why not paypal

Before you start working with PayPal, for once, I decided to first read what ordinary people say about it. My account there has been open for a long time, but it was opened for registration, I don’t remember where, where the PayPal account was required. Since then there have been no movements. Actually, even without feedback, it became clear that our cooperation would not work out, since the first thing I was asked for was clarification of the data for account verification. The data was received and suggested that I wait from a week to a month. After this feint, PayPal got a lot of trouble working with it. By the way, they still verify something there. Against this background, even the annoyingly slow Payoneer looks menacingly sharp and nimble, like some Bruce Lee in a fight with Chuck Norris.

Subtleties of revenue accounting

When working with exchanges and payment systems, according to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation , it is imperative to record in the ACS (Revenue Accounting Book) the receipts of the amounts that your counterparty transferred to you, and not those that settle in your pocket after paying the commissions. If you are on the simplified tax system, this is necessary for calculating the tax, which is taken exactly from the amount that the counterparty transfers to you. Also, do not forget to enter this amount in KUD in rubles at the exchange rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on the day of receipt of funds to your account in the payment system or on the exchange. This is extremely important, and will save you from huge hemorrhoids and fines on the day of the desk check, which inevitably occurs three years after the opening of the IP. Costs, however, are of no interest to anyone. On STS 6% - because the tax is calculated on income, on STS - because KUD is important only to show that you secretly did not earn more than 60,000,000 a year.

Nevertheless

Exchanges and payment systems are needed, despite all my negative experience with them. The former help to find a customer or contractor, act as a guarantor in transactions with an unfamiliar counterparty. The second simplify the process of transferring money and provide other opportunities. The same PayPal in its homeland is very, very deservedly popular, this did not work out with him for me. Therefore, I do not call anyone to anything, but simply share my experience and my opinion.

There are never too many bureaucracies

We stopped with the employer on direct transfers to my IP account, since my bank has SWIFT. I don’t know how others do with it. Out of my ear, I heard that SP is obliged to conclude agreements with contractors, but while I was at Upwork, he did it all for me. Now it was necessary to solve this issue, which, to my relief, was resolved in a couple of minutes.

As it turned out, to carry out my activities, as a contract, I can provide a simple regular invoice for each transaction. In order for the amount transferred within the framework of this invoice not to attract close attention from VK, it is enough not to exceed the threshold of 200,000 rubles. in one invoice. In this case, the invoices themselves can be an unlimited number. I found a sample of the completed invoice on the Web:

Also, on the Web you can find a bunch of services that will draw you any invoice for free or for money. I will not give examples; googling by keywords "invoice generator" is triggered in 10 cases out of 10.

But no one forbids to build an invoice yourself, in any text or spreadsheet editor. It is enough to have minimal skills in working with office applications. Printing, as in the picture, is not necessary at all.

Cashbox

It is simply not needed, since I am only providing a service, thereby falling within the scope of Federal Law 129-FZ "On Amending the Federal Law" On the Use of Cash Register Machines in Settlements in the Russian Federation "

Section 2

1. To establish that individual entrepreneurs who do not have workers with whom labor contracts are concluded, when selling goods of their own production, performing work, rendering services, have the right not to use cash register equipment in settlements for such goods, work, services until July 1, 2021 .

Total

I outlined my choice at the very beginning of the article. And there I outlined the main goal: to give sufficient explanations to those people who, like me, do not understand the law, but want to live in peace with the state, while not paying too much for this very world. Nevertheless, I am happy to find out in your comments what was wrong if you would like to point out this to me. Thanks for attention!