”, The government is discussing a proposal by Russian online retailers to impose a tax on their foreign competitors, including AliExpress, Amazon and eBay, on the basis of a“ tax on Google ”. The websites of companies that refuse to pay it can be blocked through Roskomnadzor, follows from the amendments to tax code and the Information Law, developed by the Association of Internet Trading Companies (AKIT). Such measures could force foreign trading floors and their sellers to leave the Russian market, their representatives say.
Tax on aliexpress 2017 in Russia at customs. Why is the tax being introduced?
AKIT (unites 37 Russian retailers, including Detsky Mir, Yulmart, Ozon.ru, re: Store, KupiVIP, Lamoda, M.Video, Eldorado, etc.) has developed a package of amendments to the Tax Code and the law “About the information,” a source familiar with its preparation told Kommersant. AKIT believes that companies like AliExpress, Amazon and eBay now have a competitive advantage over national suppliers in the form of exemption from VAT and import customs duties when selling goods worth up to € 1,000 and weighing up to 31 kg, says the source of Kommersant. The amendments propose to introduce a mechanism for VAT registration of foreign online stores by analogy with the so-called Google tax, which entered into force on January 1, 2017. Within its framework, foreign companies selling electronic content or software via the Internet in Russia must register with the tax service and pay 18% VAT on a par with Russian companies.
Tax on aliexpress 2017 in Russia at customs. How much to pay, how will the tax on Aliexpress parcels be calculated?
For online stores offering cross-border delivery of goods, the tax is proposed to be calculated using a simplified method, it will amount to 15.25% of the final price of the goods, the source said. In this case, the Federal Tax Service will have the right to send an electronic trading platform a request to block the page of a seller who does not fulfill the obligation to pay VAT. If it does not take effect, the tax authorities will go to court and Roskomnadzor, which, after receiving judgment on restricting access to non-paying pages, will send a request to telecom operators to block them. The project also provides for a mechanism for unblocking the seller within three days after paying VAT, specifies the source of Kommersant.
Tax on aliexpress 2017 in Russia at customs. AKIT: documents have been developed.
Executive Director of AKIT Artem Sokolov confirmed to Kommersant that such documents were developed by the association. According to him, now they are being discussed in the government, where the process of preparing a conclusion is underway. He refers to the decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 203 of May 9, 2017, which approved the strategy for the development of the information society in the Russian Federation for 2017–2030. Among other things, it stipulates that foreign market participants, along with Russian ones, must comply with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation, he explains. At the same time, one of the points indicates the need to take measures to restrict access to software, goods and services provided online in Russia by foreign organizations that have violated the law.
Tax on aliexpress 2017 in Russia at customs - Ministry of Economic Development.
The Ministry of Economy told Kommersant yesterday that they had received documents with proposals and were working on their position. The Ministry of Finance has “heard about such proposals” and is also analyzing them. The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications could not promptly respond to the request of Kommersant. AliExpress declined to comment.
The complication of the sale procedure is more likely to force sellers to stop selling their goods to Russia, believes Ilya Kretov, CEO of eBay in Russia and emerging markets of Europe.
“This will significantly reduce the range of goods supplied to our country. If we talk about eBay, a foreign seller will simply tick the box that they do not deliver goods to Russia, ”he says. The cost of goods from foreign sellers already includes the operating costs of the store, national taxes and fees, moreover, the commission for using the Internet site and payment system, continues Mr. Kretov. “The choice of buying from abroad is influenced by the cost of delivery and the waiting period: the absence of these factors in Russian stores is their competitive advantage, which is constantly kept silent. In addition, retail imports are already regulated by customs duties, ”he summarizes.
Tax on aliexpress 2017 in Russia at customs. Effects.
If the proposal of the Association is supported by the Cabinet of Ministers, appropriate amendments will be made to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. They will allow Roskomnadzor to block websites of companies that do not want to pay tax.
Are there any restrictions on the purchase of goods on Aliexpress? This question is of interest to many avid buyers, since this marketplace is a real find for shopping. To determine the answer to this question, we propose to comprehend a little the basics of customs law. This will help to find out not only the restrictions on the monetary parameter, but also on the weight, which is no less important.
If we refer to the rules for purchases on this trading platform, then the money limit for orders on Aliexpress has not been set. This means that you can safely order goods for any amount that your heart desires. But there is one small "but". Intrigued? The thing is that when buying goods in overseas online stores, you must also take into account and customs regulations... Experienced buyers know that exceeding the limits established by the customs legislation of the country can affect family budget... After all, if you exceed certain indicators, you will have to pay customs duties. But let's understand everything in order.
In 2010, at the legislative level, uniform limits for weight and monetary indicators were established, within which the delivery of goods is carried out without collecting customs duties. Moreover, such limits are the same for all organizations that process mail, regardless of whether they are public or private legal entities.
Another feature of such limits is that they are provided for a period of one month.
Thus, the maximum monetary indicator for parcels from abroad - 1000 euros per month. As for the weight one, it reaches 31 kg.
Taking into account these indicators, the buyer can adjust his orders and try to keep within the permitted limits. Otherwise, the customs duty cannot be avoided, but is it really so high now that it is necessary to carefully count your parcels within a month?
Duty on orders on Aliexpress
Many people know that exceeding the norm and value of the order will lead to the obligation to pay customs duties. But only a few understand the essence of this concept. In simple terms, this is a certain amount of money that will need to be paid if the limits are exceeded. Referring to legislative framework and the theory of jurisprudence, the following characteristic features of customs duties can be distinguished, answering the following questions:
- What is a duty? - This is a mandatory payment.
- When is it charged? - When moving goods across the customs border.
- Which public authorities are authorized to collect it? - Customs.
- How is the fulfillment of the obligation to pay it ensured? - Measures of state coercion, including the bearing of legal responsibility, both administrative and criminal.
As you can see, this payment is not called mandatory for nothing, because the consequences for non-payment can be dire. To prevent this from happening, remember the two main indicators - 1000 euros and 31 kg. The slightest excess - and you have to pay.
Russians make most of their online purchases in foreign online stores, mainly Chinese ones: AliExpress, Taobao. Now foreign suppliers have an advantage over domestic ones: they are exempted from additional taxes and customs duties when selling goods at a price of up to 1,000 euros. Russian online stores pay 18% VAT on each item sold. They believe that imposing taxes on foreign stores is necessary to ensure fair competition.
What initiative have Russian online stores come up with?
The Association of Internet Trade Companies (AKIT), which unites large Russian Internet retailers, proposes to introduce an additional tax for foreign Internet sites - 15.25% of the price of the goods.
“We offered the Russian government two options for obtaining tax,” says Yulia Galeeva, an official representative of AKIT, to TASS. “First, the Internet site pays taxes and can include their cost in their own fees from suppliers. Sanctions for non-payment of tax - blocking the page. The second option - not a platform, but the suppliers who sell through it, pay VAT, but then the difficulty arises. On Taobao, for example, there are a huge number of sellers. It turns out that the Federal tax office will have to send requests to block the page of each supplier who did not pay tax. We're leaning towards the more convenient first option. "
To enter new tax, it is necessary to amend the Tax Code and the Law "On Information".
A similar law - on the "tax on Google" - has been adopted and has been in effect in Russia since the beginning of the year. According to this document, foreign companies selling electronic content via the Internet in Russia are required to pay VAT.
Who needs the amendments and why?
Russian online stores. The market of online trading in Russia in the first half of 2017, according to AKIT, grew by 22%. The turnover for six months amounted to 489 billion rubles, of which only 98.9 billion rubles were accounted for by domestic sellers.
Moreover, the growth of local online sales was 11%, and international - 49%. “We have a colossal imbalance between imports and exports,” explained Alexander Fedorov, head of AKIT. "If cross-border trade grows at such a pace, then in two years it will replace the Russian Internet trade in small household appliances and clothing."
Who will this affect?
According to a Nielsen study, in 2016, 88% of Russian consumers surveyed online said they had made a purchase online at least once.
Russians buy most of foreign goods in China, according to AKIT. The share of shipments from this country is 90%, from the European Union - 4%, the United States - 2%. At the same time, in monetary terms, China (TaoBao, Alibaba) accounts for 52%, the European Union - 23%, the United States (for example, Amazon, eBay) - 12%.
What are the predictions?
Russians may be left without online shopping on foreign sites.
"The complication of the procedure for the sale of goods will most likely force sellers to stop selling their goods in the Russian Federation," Kommersant quotes the words of Ilya Kretov, CEO of eBay in Russia and the emerging markets of Europe.
Share Russian market in the world e-commerce is about 0.7%. “For foreign online retailers, it is not significant,” explains Alexander Ivanov, president of the National Distance Selling Association. He believes that registration of payers with the Federal Tax Service will be de facto impossible.
"For example, on Alibaba there are 3.6 million sellers, on eBay there are more than 1.5 million, these are only the two largest marketplaces, there are others. "break the system" for the sake of the Russian segment.
Anastasia Stepanova
Information appeared on the Internet that, starting from July 1, the delivery rules in the most popular online stores Aliexpress and Amazon will change. Many Russians are interested in this question, since these stores are very popular. Shops attract with their low prices.
The Russian government has long been engaged in the issue of orders from Aliexpress and Amazon stores. They commented on their interest in the fact that Chinese and American sites are destroying the earnings of Russian manufacturers, thereby making Russia uncompetitive. And this is hitting the state budget quite hard.
What are the changes to the rules for buying on Aliexpress and Amazon?
The innovations began to be launched last year, in December. New rules were introduced for the delivery of foreign goods, mainly the changes concerned the filling of forms. It is imperative to indicate passport data, TIN, and also do not forget about the link to the ordered product. There has been talk of tax imposition on items ordered from Aliexpress and Amazon. Such changes will be valid until July 1 this year. According to the government, Aliexpress and Amazon will suffer significant crashes.
The government received a proposal to abolish the threshold for duty-free import of foreign goods, and simply simply introduce a tax on all ordered goods. If the state approves the proposals, then the innovations will come into force next year. Also, experts believe that the goods should have a 20% duty and a certain minimum weight (at least 1 kg).
When will the changes take effect?
Discussions about the planned innovations are ongoing by the government to this day. Information has been received from the Minister of Finance that the threshold for duty-free import of goods from Aliexpress and Amazon stores from July 1 may be reduced to 100 euros. Many people are unhappy with this information because the fee is too high. The only plus is that the government will remove limited quantity parcels per month.
From reliable sources it became known that duty-free import, starting from July 1, 2018, will be up to 500 euros. If the amount exceeds 500 euros, the customer will have to pay a 20% duty.
The parcels will be monitored. All received goods from Aliexpress and Amazon, together with the TIN of customers will be entered into the database. Thus, the government wants to control these purchases. In the near future, they want to achieve the introduction of a tax on the ordered goods, which will have to be paid by the customer himself through his Personal Area... If you do not pay tax, the customer will be left without their goods.
Russians who are accustomed to buying cheap goods on such popular platforms as AliExpress, Taobao, Amazon and eBay are in for unpleasant surprises in the near future.
Project federal budget for 2018-2020, for which the deputies have already voted in the first reading, provides for cutting the norms of goods for personal use imported individualsduty-free: up to € 500 in 2019 and € 200 in 2020 (today the norm is € 1000. - Ed.). And from the middle of next year (called May 2018), a tax will most likely be introduced in€20 for the purchase of goods in foreign online stores, if the purchase amount exceeds € 200. Experts, as writes , expect from these innovations only an increase in prices and volumes of gray imports.
It is known that the authorities also intend to force Russians to pay VAT on purchases from foreign online stores. In addition, it is planned to introduce a customs fee, however, a suitable infrastructure has not yet been created for this. It is planned that VAT will be levied in a simplified manner and its size will be 15.25% of the value of the goods.
As we already wrote, we are talking about the fact that the authorities of the Russian Federation approved an openly lobbying initiative (stands for the association of Internet trading companies. - Author's note) to introduce VAT for foreign Internet companies (Russian Monitor has already repeatedly discussed this). Already, amendments to the Tax Code, as well as the law "On Information" are ready.
The story began back in November 2016, when Vladimir Putin instructed the government, before the end of the year, to study a proposal to amend legislative regulations that would take into account the collection of VAT, as well as customs duties from foreign trading Internet platforms, and other suppliers when the sale of goods on the Web to Russian individuals... In October of this year, the Ministry of Finance laid down in the draft budget for 2018 - 2020 a decrease in the threshold for duty-free trade with foreign online platforms from € 1,000 to € 20. Such a huge leap caused discussions both among ordinary citizens and among businessmen, to which later the representative of the Ministry of Finance hastened to add that the final size of the threshold has not yet been determined.
What do Russian online stores want, and why do they need it?
Our home-grown Jeffs Bezos (Jeff Bezos is the head and creator of Amazon) have long and jealously watched as billions of Russian citizens disappear into the pockets of the owners of foreign Internet giants, who could settle in their own. However, since they need to organize their business so that their services would be attractive to Russians, they lack qualifications, and the entrepreneurial climate in the country, to put it mildly, is not conducive, so the owners of Russian online stores decided to take a simple path, resort to administrative levers and simply drive competitors out of the market. Therefore, they have repeatedly appealed to the authorities with a request to introduce a procedure under which VAT will be levied on all purchases in foreign online stores and, at present, active work is already underway on this project. We have already written about the details of this more than once, now we will try to figure out what is the point of this, as well as how the new duties will affect the pockets of Russians, who, subject to the adoption of the amendments, will lose the opportunity to save on purchases from popular platforms specializing in online trading ...
Why does the government need it?
According to preliminary calculations, the innovation will bring about 100 billion rubles to the Russian budget. in year.
How large is the share of purchases made by Russians in foreign online stores?
As you know, mostly Russians buy goods from Chinese resources. Namely, on such platforms as Taobao, and AliExpress. Although overseas sites such as eBay and Amazon and stores of popular clothing brands also do not complain about attention from customers from Russia. We are talking about billions of dollars.
From January to June this year, online trade in the Russian Federation, according to the data provided by AKIT, increased by 22%. During this period, the total turnover was 489 billion rubles, and of which only 98.9 billion rubles fell on the Russian segment. In addition, Russian online sales grew by 11%, while international sales were 49%. Residents of Russia for shopping on the Internet most often choose sites in the PRC, according to the AKIT website. The total percentage of goods sent from China is 90, from the EU - 4, and from the United States - 2. In monetary terms, the share of China is 52%, the EU is 23%, and America is 12%.
For reference: The company Nielsen in the past year in the course of a research project found that 88% of Russians who participated in the survey online, at least once purchased a product on the Internet.
The lobbyists are confident that they are acting honestly, depriving the Russians of the opportunity to save money. Is it so? (of course not. - Approx. ed.)
It is also no secret that foreign Internet sites specializing in trade really have a clear price advantage over Russian ones, since they do not pay additional taxes and customs duties if they sell goods for less than € 1000. But Russian entrepreneurs who run an online trading business are forced to pay 18% VAT from each unit sold. Russian businessmen believe that in this way they will be able to level the playing field and create fair competition.
It should be noted that the lobbyist of the project for collecting Internet imports was the president of AKIT Alexey Fedorov. Earlier, he stated that the new amendments would not cause an increase in the price of goods, since in this case, the stores would simply sacrifice the margin (of course, he is lying, since the stores will simply pass these costs onto us. - Author's note).
The head of AKIT is also confident (and this is true. - Author's note) that there is a huge imbalance between exports and imports in the country. If cross-border trade continues to grow at the same rate, then, according to him, this will allegedly lead to the displacement of domestic online trade in clothing and small household appliances in 2 years. The AKIT representative said that the priority task is to create a level playing field for both domestic and foreign online stores. According to him, it is about leveling all conditions without exception. In addition, there should be equal responsibilities within the framework of consumer protection and certification. However, behind the bombastic phrases, as usual, the ears of personal interests stick out.
The Russians, presumably, are not delighted with this idea, however, who and when in our country was interested in the opinion of ordinary people. Taxation for foreign trade Internet sites according to a simplified system, provides for fixing at the level of 15.25% of the price of the goods. The law "On Tax on Google" has already been adopted in the Russian Federation since the beginning of this year. This normative document obliges all foreign companies that sell content on the World Wide Web to pay taxes.
At first glance, everything is logical here, because now, when we purchase applications from the Appstore and Google play, the tax is paid, respectively, by Apple and Google, however, it, of course, is already included in the price of the purchased product. Therefore, it is not surprising that businessmen are wondering why sellers from Amazon and AliExpress are exempt from it. However, in the case of Ebay, the situation is slightly different, because not only shops, but also individuals sell their goods there. If we are to be fair to the end, then you need to collect a fee from sellers on the Russian resource Avito.
How new law will work in practice?
Foreign trading Internet platforms Russian government will propose to go through the registration procedure with the Federal Tax Service, and transfer 15.25% of the final price of the goods. But if any trading platform ignores the requirement, it may be subject to sanctions by Russian regulators.
Internet Ombudsman of the Russian Federation Dmitry Marinichev previously reported in the media that the Cabinet of Ministers is discussing the proposal of domestic retailers to introduce fees for foreign competitors, including such large players as Amazon, AliExpress, and eBay. Marinichev believes that in the end the tax burden will fall directly on the final Russian consumer.
How much will the prices for goods eventually rise after the law that obliges foreign Internet sites to pay VAT comes into force?
The average check for purchases on foreign online trading platforms ranges from $ 100 to $ 150. That is, at first glance, the difference here will be insignificant, but if, for example, for shoes or a smartphone you need to pay 1,000 rubles more, then this will already affect the pocket of the average Russian real (and not the average temperature in the hospital, which he talks about us Rosstat) wage, which, especially in the regions, fluctuates in the range of 15-20 thousand
However, even with this overpayment, buying from domestic online sellers with unpredictable quality and other disadvantages will still be unprofitable.
How much will the products in the same AliExpress become more expensive?
At first glance, it should seem that the purchase price will increase by only 15-16% (the amount of VAT charged under a simplified scheme). However, if you understand it turns out that no, alas, it seems so. Since overseas retailers will have to incur additional modification costs software, as well as accounting, which, according to experts, means that the rise in price can be at least 25-30%, which makes most of the goods on the same AliExpress more expensive than on Russian sites. Which will lead to the fact that they will simply leave the Russian market, and the Russians will be deprived of online purchases from foreign resources ... It must be assumed that everything is being started for this. In addition, do not forget that in addition to VAT, you will be forced to pay additional duties, which are discussed at the beginning of the article.
Could this lead to the fact that foreign online stores do not want to incur additional costs and simply leave Russia?
Industry officials are also expressing similar concerns. Earlier, Kommersant quoted Ilya Kretov, CEO of eBay in the Russian Federation and actively developing European markets. Kretov noted that the new complicated procedure for selling goods is likely to lead to the fact that foreign online businessmen will stop doing business with the Russian Federation.
In the global Internet commerce, the share of the Russian market is only 0.7%, and for foreign online sellers this is not a significant figure, said Alexander Ivanov, president of the National Distance Selling Association. There are about 3.6 million sellers on Alibaba, about 1.5 million on eBay, and these are only 2 large marketplaces, Ivanov adds. According to him, foreign companies specializing in Internet sales will hardly be profitable to break the system only for the Russian market.
Will the prices in Russian online stores also become higher?
Of course! Removing foreign competitors from the market, forcing domestic sites to keep low prices, nothing will force domestic owners to moderate their appetites.
Anna Nersesyan