Inclusion in the register of small and medium-sized businesses (register of SMEs)

Provided current economic situation, Marillion is ready to support small and medium-sized businesses and help to receive assigned benefits. Such benefits can be obtained by legal entities with foreign equity which are officially registered as SMEs.

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Inclusion in the register of small and medium-sized businesses (register of SMEs)

How we can help

Assistance in obtaining official and statutory benefits which come in the form of reduced insurance premium rates (15% versus 30%). Such rates apply to monthly wage payments that exceed federal minimum wage and are available to companies* included in the register of small and medium-sized businesses (register of SMEs).

* Organisations in the form of LLC or JSC with the participation of foreign legal entities.

Companies that are listed in the SME register can be eligible for the following support measures**:

  • City programme of concessional lending (applied to all industries)
    Loans at a rate of 15% applied for working capital and investment purposes. The term for such subsidised interest rate is 12 months, the maximum loan amount is 50 million rubles.
  • Programme of concessional lending for investment purposes (for SMEs investing in the field of science, manufacturing and IT).
    The maximum loan amount for this programme is 300 million rubles. The interest rate is 5.5% for small and 7% for medium businesses, which is more than three times lower than the current market rates.

** Governing law: Federal law No. 209-FZ dated 24.07.2007 ‘On Development of Small and Medium Entrepreneurship in the Russian Federation’ (Section 6.2 Article 4.1).

Procedure for obtaining benefits

The Federal Tax Service does not automatically include in the SME register organisations, where the participants (founders) are foreign legal entities with a total share in the authorised capital of the Russian company that exceeds 49%.

Companies with such ownership structure can be registered as SMEs by the Federal Tax Service only after a special auditor’s note is issued.

Consequently, for a company to be registered, an audit company must check its and participants’ data and then approve the inclusion of the company in the SME register (which happens only if the entity meets all the established criteria).

Following that, the auditor communicates the VAT of the audited entity to the Federal Tax Service, using its electronic signature to sign the message. After receiving the note Tax Service includes the organisation in the SME register within the set period.

Criteria for inclusion in the SME register

A Russian organisation whose participants are
foreign legal entities with a total share of
the authorised capital exceeding 49% needs to fulfil the following criteria at the end of the last reporting year:

  • Revenue does not exceed 2 billion rubles;
  • The average number of employees over the last
    reporting year does not exceed 250 persons;

Foreign legal entities which are the participants of the organisation must fulfil the following criteria at the end of the last reporting year:

  • Revenue does not exceed 2 billion rubles (when converted to the Russian currency);
  • The headcount over the last reporting year does not exceed 250 persons.

Required documents

For a Russian company:

  1. Financial reports from the last reporting year with the confirmation of their submission to the tax authority;
  2. Corporate income tax declaration or declaration of special tax regime for the last reporting year with the confirmation of their submission to the tax authority;
  3. Annual premium statement for the last reporting year with the confirmation of their submission to the tax body;
  4. A record from the list of the limited liability company members (for LLC) or a record from the shareholders list (for JSC) as of the 1 January of the year following the last reporting one.

For a foreign company that is a founder / participant of the Russian entity:

  1. Financial reports of the foreign legal entity for the last reporting year, marked or otherwise confirmed as being submitted to the regulating authority of the country of residence;
  2. A document with the information on the headcount for the last reporting year, marked or otherwise confirmed as being submitted to the regulating body of the country of residence;
  3. A record/confirmation of the company registration in the country of residence (an incorporation certificate or a similar document) with Russian translation and apostille.

Deadline for including in the SME register

Information is submitted to the Federal Tax Service once a month from the 1st to the 5th of each month.

Nota Bene!

Inclusion of a joint-stock company in the register entails a different procedure. That is, a joint-stock company that has passed the test for compliance with the SME register criteria is issued a special report prepared by the auditor. Following that, the joint-stock company submits the Auditor's Report to its holder of the register of shareholders, who, using their electronic signature, sends a request for the inclusion in the register of SMEs to the Federal Tax Service.

Inclusion in the SME register for organisations with foreign participation is done annually, after checks on the compliance with the SME criteria are complete.

An organisation cannot be included in the SME register if its participants / founders have residency of the offshore countries specified in the list of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation.

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