Direct taxes include a tax on what? Tax classification

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-17 18:37

The tax system of most countries provides for both direct and indirect payments. Both of them can be significant in terms of replenishing the state budget. Russian legislation also provides for both types of taxes. Both categories are represented in a fairly wide range of varieties. What are the specifics of Russian direct taxes? What is their fundamental difference from indirect payments to the state budget?

Essence of direct taxes

What are direct taxes? Examples of these can be found in the legislation of most countries in the world. Including in Russia. But before considering specific varieties of direct taxes, let's study in more detail the essence of the corresponding term. What are the most common theoretical concepts relevant to the fees in question?

Among Russian experts, it is common to define direct taxes as fees levied by the government on the income or property of payers, individuals or legal entities. The main sign of payment obligations, oin question - the relevant payments are made by the citizen or organization himself, or by delegating the appropriate powers to the level of tax agents, if this is provided for by law. Thus, the subject of paying direct taxes is, both de jure and de facto, the taxpayer.

Specificity of indirect taxes

In turn, indirect taxes suggest a different scheme. Formally, their payer is considered to be a certain entity - for example, a sales company. But in fact, indirect taxes are paid by the clients of this organization - an individual or a legal entity, since the amount of the corresponding contributions is usually included in the selling price of the goods. Examples of fees in question are VAT, excise tax. A company that sells goods on the market, therefore, includes them in the cost of selling goods, and then transfers the corresponding amounts to the budget of the Russian Federation.

Classification of obligations

What would be the classification of direct taxes?

Fees of the appropriate type can be classified into one or another category based on a variety of reasons. In principle, the same classification criteria can be applied to direct taxes as for any other payments established by Russian law.

Thus, taxes in the Russian Federation are federal, regional and local. Theoretically, within any of these categories, both direct and indirect budget commitments can appear.

Another possible criterion for classifying direct taxes is the subject of their payment. This can be a citizen, an individual entrepreneur, a legal entity, a foreign organization or a person with a passport of another state. In some cases, it may also matter whether the taxpayer is a resident of the Russian Federation, or lives most of the time abroad.

In principle, such a basis for classifying taxes as a type of taxable base is applicable. It can be presented, for example, in the form of property, revenue from goods sold, or income from services rendered.

Another possible basis for classifying the charges in question is the subject of charge calculation. The fact is that such can be both the taxpayer himself, and, for example, the state department acting as the administrator of a particular tax, in particular the Federal Tax Service.

Let's study the essence of some direct payment obligations established in the Russian Federation in more detail.

Examples of direct taxes in Russia

What direct taxes are legally established in Russia? Examples of such can be found in legal acts in the widest range. Direct taxes include, in particular:

• Personal income tax - its subjects are individuals;
• income tax - it is paid by legal entities;
• property tax, presented in two varieties - for citizens and for legal entities.

Let's take a closer look at the specifics of the marked fees.

Let's start with federal direct taxes. That is, those that are paid to the central institutions of the budget system of the Russian Federation.

NDFL

KDirect taxes include tax, which is charged on the personal income of individuals, or personal income tax. As a rule, it is charged on the salary of a citizen, but can also be applied to other types of revenue that a person receives, for example, from the sale of property or other transactions that have brought benefits.

The income tax rate for Russians is 13% if they have resident status, and 30% if they live mainly abroad. The legislation of the Russian Federation establishes a number of deductions for personal income tax, in particular, deductions provided to citizens who have purchased real estate at their own expense.

Business Income Tax

Direct taxes include the tax paid by enterprises within the framework of the common system for calculating payments to the budget or DOS. As a rule, this fee is paid by large businesses, since small businesses and individual entrepreneurs most often seek to conduct business under the simplified tax system, UTII or another system that involves a reduction in the tax burden. This is understandable - the income tax rate in the Russian Federation is 20%. This is significantly more than with the simplified tax system.

The tax rate on profits generated as a result of commercial activities is further subdivided into actually 2 types. The fact is that 2% of the collection in question should be transferred to the federal budget, 18% - to the regional one. Thus, the fee in question can be attributed to two levels at once - federal and regional.

In turn, the income tax rate under the simplified tax system for individual entrepreneurs can be 6% of the company's profit or 15% of revenuecompanies. The payment obligation under consideration is calculated on the basis of the taxable base, which is determined as the difference between the taxpayer's revenue and expenses. It can be noted that individual entrepreneurs do not pay the tax in question. The relevant obligations under the legislation of the Russian Federation are imposed only on legal entities, as well as on branches of foreign structures that carry out commercial activities in the Russian Federation.

An important aspect of tax payment in question is the determination of the method by which the taxpayer allocates income and expenses to a particular period. There are two of them - cash and accrual. The first concept of tax calculation assumes that income should be taken into account at the time of the transaction, that is, after the conditions under the relevant contract are met. For example, a product is delivered or a service is provided. In turn, the essence of the cash method is in determining income after the client actually settles with the supplier by transferring funds to his current account or paying them in cash.

Considering Russian direct taxes, it will be useful to study the specifics, in particular, of the property tax. There are two of them.

Citizens' property tax

Direct taxes include personal property tax. This fee is also federal. In the general case, it is calculated based on the size of the taxable base, which is expressed in the cadastral value of real estate owned by the taxpayer, as well as the area of the corresponding object.

Before2015, the corresponding indicator was calculated on the basis of the inventory value of the property. The legislation of the Russian Federation establishes a number of deductions in relation to the fee in question. Thus, the taxable base can be reduced by 10 sq. m, if we are talking about a room, 20 sq. m, if the corresponding preference is applied to an apartment, 50 sq. m, if the owner of the house uses the deduction.

Corporate property tax

Direct taxes include property tax of legal entities. Its nature is somewhat different from the corresponding levy for citizens. First of all, we note that this tax is regional, not federal. At the same time, the authorities in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation fix the rate on their own - within the limits that are fixed in the provisions of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Also, regional legislators have the right to establish a special procedure for determining the size of the tax base, benefits, as well as algorithms for their application by payers. The fee in question must be paid by organizations that own both movable and immovable assets. At the same time, the structure of the taxable base may include property that the company has transferred into temporary possession or trust management.

Who calculates property taxes?

The distinction between the property fees in question can also be made depending on who is, in accordance with the law, the subject of the calculation of these taxes. In this case, there is a practical example of tax classification according to one of the criteria we fixed at the beginning of the article.

The fact is that in the case of payments for individuals, the amounts for payment to the budget are presented by the structures of the Federal Tax Service. Tax service specialists, having at their disposal data on the availability of certain types of real estate to citizens, calculate property tax and send notices of its payment by mail. Legal entities, in turn, must determine the amount of payment obligations on their own.

VAT

Let's study the specifics of one of the indirect taxes. Among them - value added tax, VAT. This fee is usually included, as we noted above, in the selling price of the goods. In fact, VAT is paid by the buyer, but from a legal point of view, the obligation to pay it to the budget is borne by the supplier. The VAT rate is 18% or 10% for certain business transactions. The legislation provides for the use of a number of deductions by VAT payers.

CV

So, we have considered a number of examples of direct and indirect taxes established by the legislation of the Russian Federation. The main criterion for the differences between them is the status of the actual payer and the one who should transfer the relevant payments to the budget based on the requirements of the law. It will help us to visually fix the fundamental difference between direct and indirect taxes, the table below.

	Direct taxes	Indirect taxes
Who pays de jure	Taxpayer - legal entity, individual	Taxpayer
Who pays de facto	Taxpayer	Client of the taxpayer, buyer - legal entity or individual
Examples of taxes	Personal income tax, corporate income tax, property taxes	VAT, excises, customs duties

In some cases, the distinction between direct and indirect taxes is quite problematic. The fact is that a company may, in particular, not include VAT in the structure of the selling price of goods - in order to optimize taxation or to increase competitiveness in the market. In this case, the company will be a VAT payer both from a legal and factual point of view.

From the point of view of filling the budget of the Russian Federation, both direct and indirect taxes can be significant. Therefore, the state is constantly improving approaches to organizing the effective collection of both types of payments.