Forfeit is a serious violation

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

In business turnover, such a term as a pen alty is often considered. This concept, in accordance with Russian legislation, is considered in the Civil Code (Article 330 of the first part). In it, a fine, a pen alty fee, which are synonymous with a forfeit, are designated as amounts determined by law or an agreement paid to the creditor if the obligation is not fulfilled in an appropriate way (for example, fines are often paid due to late payment).

Forfeit is the relationship between the debtor and the creditor, which must necessarily be fixed in writing (usually in the form of a clause in the contract). If this was not done, pen alties, fines have no right to exist. In addition, a pen alty cannot be required to be paid if the debtor is not responsible for any obligation or its proper performance.

As already mentioned, a pen alty is a concept established by an agreement or law. In the latter case, it is called legal andpaid regardless of whether the parties have agreed on it or not. Fines in the form of a legal forfeit may be increased, but if they are not commensurate with the consequences that the failure to fulfill obligations entailed (the pen alties are very large), in accordance with a court decision, the amount of the forfeit may be reduced (under Article 333 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

The percentage of the pen alty is set by the contracting parties or is rigidly fixed in the relevant regulatory act. For example, we often see pen alties for late payments on apartment or electricity bills, the amount of which is specified in local legislation.

When a pen alty is a payment that is disproportionately large compared to the amount of the principal debt, the debtor is obliged to provide evidence of this state of affairs to an arbitration court of any instance. As a rule, the court reaches a positive decision if the case concerns only apparent disproportion. This takes into account interest and payments that have already been made to the creditor. But it is not worth counting on a reduction in the size of the pen alty in the event that it was increased for some reason in its legal part.

For tax purposes, a pen alty for delay and other violations of the performance of obligations are treated by the recipient as non-operating income if they are recognized by the person-debtor or the organization has a valid court decision at its disposal. This order is established inArticle No. 250 of the Tax Code of Russia.

In accounting, fines and pen alties are reflected when a month has passed since the entry into force of the court decision (if there was no appeal to arbitration) or they were recognized as a debtor. The basis for recognition should be a document, for example, a letter, a bilateral act, etc. Operations are carried out on the debit of account 76 and the credit of account 91. When the amount of the pen alty is directly received by the organization, the creditor needs to make entries on the credit of the 76th account and the debit of account No. 51.