Article 18 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation defines the concept of "special tax regime - a special procedure for determining the elements of taxation, as well as exemption from the obligation to pay certain taxes and fees".
Reasons for the emergence of existing tax systems:
-The first of the analogues of the existing regimes was the unified agricultural tax. It began its origin in the Napa era and initially had the name of the food tax, but its essence has not changed much - peasant farms paid natural tax taking into account geographical, climatic and other factors.
-Then, in 1923, the concept of the UARP was introduced, agricultural land was taxed, and a couple of years later the UARP began to be levied on actual income.
-After that, the tax has not undergone any significant changes, and the Federal Law of 29.12.2001 № 187-FZ, according to which from January 1, 2002 the Tax Code of the Russian Federation was introduced into Chapter 26.1 "Taxation system for agricultural producers (single agricultural tax)" Nevertheless, the current version of Chapter 26.1, introduced by the Federal Law of 11.11.2003 No. 147-FZ, has introduced a significant change, namely: the object of taxation is income reduced by the amount of expenses. At the same time, the single rate is 6% for all constituent territories of the Russian Federation. The application of this special regime replaces the payment of the following types of taxes:
- Organizations are exempt from corporate profit tax, corporate property tax and VAT;
- Individual entrepreneurs receive exemption from personal income tax, personal property tax and VAT.
In 1986 and 1988, respectively, the laws "On Individual Labor Activity" and "On Cooperation in the USSR" were issued which allow to make a powerful breakthrough for the development of small business by providing various tax benefits to taxpayers. Then the Law "On Taxes from Enterprises, Associations and Organizations" is issued which stated that newly established small businesses, other than cooperatives, are exempted from budgetary payments from profits. The basis of the current USN regime is the Federal Law "On State Support of Small Businesses in the Russian Federation", which was issued in 1995. On December 29, 1995, the Federal Law of the Russian Federation "On the Simplified System of Taxation, Accounting and Reporting for Small Business Entities" was adopted The first one was a voluntary transition to the simplified tax system, with only two requirements being met:
1) maximum number of employees - 15 persons
2) the total gross revenue of the taxpayer does not exceed the amount of one hundred thousand times the minimum wage
The undoubted advantage of this regime both at that time and in modern days is the replacement of the totality of federal, regional and local taxes and levies established by the legislation of the Russian Federation by a single tax in combination with a simplified procedure of accounting and reporting.
In addition, No. 222-FZ also included a patent system of taxation for individual entrepreneurs. The patent value was based on the average actual average amounts of the total annual income of a group of persons engaged in a particular type of entrepreneurial activity on the territory of a particular constituent entity of the Russian Federation. There was no general algorithm for calculating the value of a patent. When conducting several types of activities by citizens at once, as well as now, it was necessary to purchase a patent for each of them.
The historical aspect of such a tax regime as UTII differs from the others. The main reason for this can be seen in the fight against the shadow economy. At the end of the 90s, the fiscal function of taxes was performed quite poorly and a tax on imputed income was introduced to prevent this. The activities that were most abused were selected - catering, retail, repair, transportation and some others. Common features of the selected types of activities are a significant share of cash settlements and non-transparent accounting of business transactions.
Russia still needs to support and develop small businesses. Its role in foreign economies is one head higher than in the Russian economy.
Russia has various programs at the federal and regional levels that stimulate small business. Nevertheless, "the tax burden on entrepreneurial activity and complexity of tax administration are of serious and often determining importance for the development of entrepreneurial activity". The introduction of special regimes, although partially, solves this problem.