In accordance with the Tax Code, penalties refer to a set of measures that ensure the fulfillment of the organization's obligations to pay taxes and fees. The organization must pay these sums of money in the event of paying taxes and fees at a later date than the deadlines established by law.
Penalty accounting
Penalty interest can be thought of as "credit interest" for the use of funds that are intended to pay taxes. Moreover, this percentage for the use of money belonging to the state will be much lower than that of credit institutions. In accordance with clauses 3 and 4 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, penalties leave one three hundredth of the current refinancing rate of the Central Bank for each day of delay (starting from the next day).
The accounting of penalties in settlements with the budget in accounting is carried out on the subaccount "Tax penalties" to account 99 "Profits and losses". To reflect them, the following transactions are made:
Debit of account 99 "Profits and losses", Credit of account 68 "Calculations of taxes and fees" - penalties have been charged;
The debit of account 68 "Calculations of taxes and fees", Credit of account 51 "Current account" - penalties are transferred to the budget.
Reason for Entry: Request from the tax authority.
Reflection of expenses for payment of penalties in financial statements
PBU 10/99 does not say anything about penalties charged for violations of tax legislation; these amounts do not relate either to expenses for core activities or to other expenses of the organization. Based on clause 2 of Article 270 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, they should not be taken into account when determining the tax base for calculating profit tax and participate in the formation of the amount of profit. When preparing quarterly, annual financial statements, the amount of penalties is reflected in the "Profit and Loss Statement", they are recorded in the line before the indicator "Net profit (loss) of the reporting period". In the balance sheet it is necessary to form the indicator "Retained earnings (uncovered loss)".
If the organization intends to challenge the correctness of the calculation of penalties and fines in court, these amounts must in any case be reflected in the above way. When the sanctions are canceled, the transactions are reversed. If the organization is on the simplified taxation system, when calculating the unified tax, penalties and fines are not included in the composition of expenses (in accordance with Article 346.16 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
Features of accounting for penalties and fines for violation of obligations to counterparties
Penalties and fines may be charged for violation of contractual obligations to counterparties. If the organization is a creditor, these amounts will be recognized as miscellaneous income (based on Accounting Regulation 9/99), if the organization is a debtor, forfeits are recognized as other expenses (based on Accounting Regulation 10/99). The accounting of such penalties and fines is carried out using account 91 "Other income and expenses", which corresponds with the accounts for accounting for monetary funds, as well as with accounts for accounting settlements.
Currently, there is no unequivocal opinion on the calculation of VAT on the amount of the penalty. In the opinion of the regulatory authorities, if the buyer is charged with penalties for violations of the terms of the contract, VAT should not be paid, since these calculations do not apply to the amounts paid for the goods, services, works sold. If the seller is to receive penalties, these amounts are included in the tax base. However, in judicial practice, there are cases when decisions were made in favor of taxpayers, and VAT on the amount of penalties was not charged or paid to the budget.
