Debt on insurance contributions to the Pension Fund is a very negative situation that entrepreneurs may encounter from time to time. It often arises due to inattention, poor work, and dishonesty. In any case, the debt to the Pension Fund is punishable, so it is very important to find out about its existence in a timely manner and repay it as soon as possible.
According to Articles 419 and 430 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, individual entrepreneurs are required to transfer contributions to the Pension Fund for compulsory health insurance and compulsory medical insurance. Voluntary contributions include only transfers in case of temporary disability and maternity.
How to find out the debt to the Pension Fund of the insured person
An individual entrepreneur can find out about the existence of a debt to the state for fixed insurance premiums for compulsory health insurance in several ways:
- By requesting reconciliation of calculations with the budget from the Federal Tax Service;
- By personal contact to the territorial branch of the Pension Fund of Russia;
- By sending a written request to the Pension Fund;
- By accessing the information portal “State Services”;
- In your Personal Account on the Pension Fund website;
- In your Personal Account on the Federal Tax Service website;
- On the website of the Federal Bailiff Service (FSSP).
Fines
In accordance with Art. 47 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the tax authority has the right to compulsorily recover the amount of arrears from the defaulter of insurance premiums. Individual entrepreneurs are first notified of the existence of a debt and offered to repay it voluntarily. If the amount is significant, the citizen may ask the tax authority in writing to provide the opportunity to repay the debt in installments.
If there is a categorical refusal, the case is sent to court. Then the bailiffs decide on the following penalties:
- at the expense of funds in the accounts of the entrepreneur;
- at the expense of property at the disposal of the entrepreneur (movable and immovable);
- deprivation of the right to drive a vehicle;
- ban on traveling abroad of the Russian Federation.
Restrictions will be lifted only after full settlement of the writ of execution.
Reconciliation of settlements with the tax office
Since the Federal Tax Service is currently directly involved in the administration of insurance premiums, you can clarify the amount of debt for insurance premiums by requesting a reconciliation of settlements with the budget from the tax authority at the place of registration.
To do this, you need to submit an application to the Federal Tax Service for a joint reconciliation of calculations, wait for the reconciliation report and compare it with your data. If there are discrepancies in the data of the individual entrepreneur and the tax office, it is necessary to draw up a statement of disagreement and submit it to the Federal Tax Service along with documents confirming the legality of calculating the contributions of the individual entrepreneur.
Things to remember
Currently, the algorithm for calculating the amount of payments to the Pension Fund for individual entrepreneurs is significantly simplified, since they are all fixed. If the income of an individual entrepreneur is up to 300,000 rubles per year, then the payment for the compulsory pension insurance will be:
- RUB 26,545 - for 2021;
- RUB 29,354 - for 2021;
- RUB 32,448 — for 2021
If the income is above 300,000 rubles per year, the entrepreneur will have to pay an additional 1% of the amount exceeding the specified limit. In this case, the amount of contributions to compulsory pension insurance cannot be more than:
- RUB 212,360 - for 2021;
- RUB 234,832 - for 2021;
- RUB 259,584 — for 2021
The amount of the fixed contribution for compulsory medical insurance is:
- 5840 rub. - for 2021;
- 6884 rub. - for 2021;
- 8426 rub. — for 2021
For each type of payment, a payment deadline has been established; for violation of it, penalties may be charged. Contributions to compulsory medical insurance and compulsory health insurance from incomes not exceeding 300,000 rubles must be made before December 31. Payments for compulsory pension insurance from an amount of income exceeding 300,000 rubles must be made before July 1 of the year following the reporting year. For example, the contribution for 2017 must be transferred before 07/01/2018. But since July 1st falls on a Sunday this year, the deadline for payment is postponed to July 2nd.
PFR website
Information about existing arrears of insurance premiums, fines and penalties can also be obtained online on the official website of the Pension Fund.
To enter your Personal Account on the Pension Fund website, you must first register in the Unified Identification and Authentication System (USIA). This process is quite long, taking several days.
First, you must enter all the necessary information into the registration form, then confirm it in one of the following ways:
- Having received a confirmation code by mail;
- By contacting one of the service centers;
- Using an electronic digital signature.
Once the account is confirmed, you will be able to use the services of the Personal Account of the insurance premium payer, which will reflect all the necessary information.
How to check debts for individual entrepreneurs online and in person: a list of methods and instructions
Below we provide detailed verification instructions for each available method.
Federal Tax Service: in the branch and on the Federal Tax Service website
Personal visit to the tax office.
You must have your passport with you. When contacting, inspectors are required to provide information:
- about tax arrears;
- about accrued penalties and fines for non-payment;
- about methods of paying debts.
In reality, this method is the least convenient, which is associated with queues at the branches.
Online visit to the Federal Tax Service website.
You can find out online debts for individual entrepreneurs from the tax office by visiting the portal www.nalog.ru.
On the site:
- you need to create a personal account (it’s convenient to immediately download the mobile version). This can be done in the following ways:
— contact the Federal Tax Service in person to receive a login and password; — create an account through an electronic digital signature (services for creating digital signatures are also provided remotely); — via JaCarta smart card; - via USB token;
- In the individual entrepreneur’s account he will be able to familiarize himself with the following functionality:
— history of contribution transactions; — request for extracts, acts and a number of other important documents; — sending requests for clarification of planned payments; — data on debt, overpayments and current contributions;
- in your personal account you can find the “services” section, where you can pay taxes and other fees online. The function will be available after specifying the data:
— settlement documentation; - type of contribution; — type of taxpayer; — details for payment; — bank details of the payer; — information on paid taxes.
You can:
- pay debts on the website by indicating a bank card;
- generate a payment order, according to which payment is then transferred through the bank.
State Services Portal
Each individual can go through the registration procedure on the portal https://www.gosuslugi.ru/.
Since individual entrepreneurs are individuals, they can also register for State Services. The condition that matters is that individual entrepreneurs are registered after identifying themselves as an individual. Algorithm of actions:
- create a personal account on the portal, registering yourself as an individual;
- from your personal account, fill out the form for registration as an individual entrepreneur;
- Then the questionnaire is sent to the Federal Tax Service.
You can find out the debts of an individual entrepreneur using the TIN as follows:
- We log in to the portal.
- We find the “tax debt” section.
- We enter personal data: you can find it by last name, by identification number.
We provide the service to users free of charge. It is noteworthy that you can view the debts of the partner company. You will need to adhere to the following order:
- Go to the page service.nalog.ru/zd.do.
- Enter the TIN of the legal entity.
- Enter the captcha.
- You will receive information if the company:
- owes more than 1,000 rubles to the budget and appears in enforcement proceedings; bailiffs have begun forced collection against her
- There has been no movement on the accounts for more than a year. That is, the legal entity does not work.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to check the entrepreneur partner; this data is hidden and remains accessible only to the individual entrepreneur himself.
On the bailiffs website
This method is more “national” - this way you can find out the debts of every citizen of the Russian Federation. Information is provided on the FSSP website, service page: https://fssprus.ru/iss/ip.
Data is provided only for debts for which enforcement proceedings have already been opened. You can find information by the name of the entrepreneur.
The tax authority can go to court and file claims for payment of the debt. After the relevant court decision is made, enforcement proceedings are initiated, which are published on the FSSP resource.
State Services Portal
Before you can view your debt using the government services portal, you will need to create and verify an account.
To do this, you must enter information into the registration form and confirm it in one of the following ways:
- Having received a confirmation code by mail;
- By contacting one of the service centers;
- Using an electronic digital signature.
After activating your personal account, you will be able to clarify the debt for both insurance premiums and other payments. To obtain information about the presence of arrears in contributions, you must use the information available in the “Pension Fund of the Russian Federation” section.
In what cases does it appear?
The taxation system provides for a number of contributions and fees that individual entrepreneurs must pay. The duties of the Federal Tax Service include sending demands for payment of taxes to entrepreneurs. But in some cases debt is formed:
- if the notification did not arrive, it was lost;
- if the individual entrepreneur postponed payment for too long;
- if a businessman simply forgot to pay tax;
- if payments to the budget were not made when the businessman did not have available funds;
- if the individual entrepreneur is away and technically could not make the payment.
Entrepreneurs calculate some taxes themselves, sometimes making mistakes. If the tax is not paid on time, regardless of the reasons, a debt arises. For some time it grows, and a penalty is charged on the amount of the arrears. If a businessman pays off debts in a timely manner, the matter is limited to the cost of paying off penalties. But when the collection is carried out by the Federal Tax Service or the FSSP, you will have to pay the tax itself, a penalty, a fine, reimbursement of legal expenses and a fee for compulsory collection.
FSSP website
Another way to clarify the fact of the presence of debt on insurance premiums is the website of the bailiff service.
Please note that it will only be possible to obtain information on debt on this website if enforcement proceedings have been opened against the debtor. If the debt is not sent for collection, there will be no data in the specified resource.
To obtain information on the FSSP website, you only need to indicate the full name of the debtor and the territorial body of the Pension Fund.
Statute of limitations
There is an opinion that an entrepreneur’s debts to the Pension Fund will be written off automatically after the closure of the individual entrepreneur’s certificate in three years. This is incorrect, since the tax authority will refuse to deregister an individual entrepreneur with debts. In the meantime, mandatory insurance premiums will continue to accrue.
If he continues to evade his obligations to pay taxes and contributions, enforcement proceedings and forced collection will be initiated.
Sanctions for individuals and organizations that have made late payments to the Pension Fund
Along with other budget payments, debt on mandatory contributions to the pension fund leads to the accrual of penalties, then the debt is sent to court for forced collection, and bailiffs are involved in the case. According to Article 23 of the Tax Code (Tax Code) of the Russian Federation, failure to pay insurance contributions to the Pension Fund is regarded as a tax offense, therefore a citizen or organization may be subject to a fine, as well as criminal liability. The penalty depends on the violation:
- Unintentional non-payment of insurance premiums. According to Article 122 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, payment of contributions to the Pension Fund in an incomplete amount or a slight delay in payments entails a fine of 20% of the unpaid amount. The sanction applies to individuals and organizations.
- Intentional non-payment of insurance premiums. According to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, if a private person or organization incorrectly calculates the insurance base (the amount of contributions), does not inform the tax inspectorate about the start of work or the hiring of employees (for organizations), such actions will entail a fine of 40% of the unpaid amount.
- Failure to pay insurance contributions to the Pension Fund on a large scale. According to Article 198 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, failure to pay contributions to the Pension Fund for three years in a row or when the amount reaches 2.7 million rubles is considered large. Such a violation entails a fine of 100 to 300 thousand rubles, forced labor or imprisonment is possible.
- Failure to pay insurance contributions to the Pension Fund on a particularly large scale. Russian legislation defines a particularly large amount of non-payment in the amount of 13.5 million rubles. Missing payments for three consecutive calendar years, leading to non-payment of 4.5 million rubles, is assessed similarly. Such violations are punishable by a fine of 200 to 500 thousand rubles and sent to forced labor for up to five years. If the non-payment was carried out by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, the perpetrators face criminal liability of up to six years.
In practice, most individuals and organizations pay debts after receiving a notice of delay from the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation or a pension fund. Voluntary repayment of contributions to the Pension Fund excludes the imposition of any sanctions; the payer only needs to pay the amount of late fees.
Is it possible to check a counterparty by TIN?
It will not be possible to check whether a counterparty has a debt using the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) on the Federal Tax Service website. To obtain data on debts, you can check by name through the FSSP website. If an entrepreneur owes money to the budget and bailiffs are handling his case, it is better to refrain from doing business with such a counterparty.
Important! Data on the debt of legal entities is available on the Federal Tax Service resource.
Consequences of debt for individual entrepreneurs
If you fail to pay your debts on time, the entrepreneur will enjoy numerous benefits:
- accrual of penalties on the amount of arrears;
- launching a collection procedure;
- charging a fine;
- forced debiting of funds from the account by decision of the tax authority;
- blocking an individual entrepreneur's account;
- opening of court proceedings;
- transferring the collection case to bailiffs.
There is even criminal liability for non-payment of taxes with a penalty of imprisonment of up to 1 year.
Paying taxes is the responsibility of every individual entrepreneur. In certain circumstances, it may create a debt, but you can find it out quickly through online services or by submitting a request to government agencies. Some resources make it possible to immediately pay off your debt via the Internet.
Checking balance offline
The method is available to both individuals and legal entities. We will not consider calling the hotline, since the user will need to come to the department in any case. All that is needed is either to send an application by Russian Post to any branch of the Pension Fund of Russia, or to personally appear at the branch and fill out a document there on a government form.
The application is drawn up manually and in any form - you just need to indicate the date of preparation, your passport data and SNILS/TIN number, and also express a request to check the balance. If the application is made in person at the branch, Pension Fund employees will definitely advise you.
Debt on insurance contributions to the Social Insurance Fund
In addition to contributions to health and pension insurance, employers must also pay mandatory social contributions. These deductions are used to pay social benefits and sick leave for employees.
Payment is made monthly to the Social Insurance Fund within the time limits approved by Law No. 212-FZ - no later than the fifteenth day of the next month. The employer reports on the transfers made quarterly by submitting a 4-FSS calculation until the 20th day of the next month inclusive (for electronic 4-FSS - until the 25th day inclusive).
4-FSS also contains fields for reflecting debt on social contributions at the beginning and end of the quarter. These figures are checked against the fund base when submitting the calculation; any discrepancies identified are grounds for sending a letter to the employer with a request to clarify the report data. In addition, a demand for the amount of debt is sent.
Litigation involving individual entrepreneurs
Sometimes a business situation develops like this. We opened an individual entrepreneur, worked a little, but the business didn’t take off, and we gave it all up.
Even if an entrepreneur sold goods or rented premises for only a short time, he could still have debts to clients and contractors. The pre-trial claims they sent by mail are easy to miss. And perhaps the entrepreneur has already been sued.
You can learn about court cases with suppliers, contractors and lessors in the file of arbitration cases. This is the basis of all legal disputes between entrepreneurs.
If there is a danger that there are claims against an individual entrepreneur from individual clients, it is worth checking the database of courts of general jurisdiction in the GAS Justice service.
If you find out that you are a participant in a lawsuit, you should get involved immediately. Go to court, photograph the statement of claim and evidence in the materials. Then go to court hearings, argue or try to reach a settlement.
How to deal with unnecessary IP
A non-performing individual entrepreneur should be closed. This will stop the accumulation of contribution debts. But the debts themselves will not go away. Debts will remain hanging over the individual, and sooner or later they will have to be repaid.
If you close an individual entrepreneur on your own, you can open a new one in the future. Closing an individual entrepreneur without employees is simple, quick and almost free. Check out our article about this.
It is impossible to sell or re-register an individual entrepreneur to another person.
Simple online accounting for entrepreneurs
The service will replace your accountant and help you save money. Elba will prepare the reports herself and send them via the Internet. It will calculate taxes, help prepare documents for transactions and will not require special knowledge.
Try 30 days free Gift for new entrepreneurs The promotion is valid for individual entrepreneurs under 3 months old
