The Pravo.ru website published an article dedicated to infobusiness in Russia. As part of this article, Tax Compliance senior tax consultant Evgeniya Zainchukovskaya provided expert commentary.

In Russia, infobusinesses are obliged to pay taxes, just like any other business. The lack of a legislative framework and the complexity of the income and expense ledger cause incorrect tax payments and additional fines. In order not to go to jail and avoid problems with the tax inspectorate, businessmen should familiarize themselves with the requirements of Russian tax law and follow them.

"A large number of bloggers apply a special tax regime - STS with the object "Income". The tax rate in this case is 6%. The right to the USN can be deprived not only because of exceeding the income limit. In the case of a joint activity agreement, or the so-called partnership agreement, the taxpayer loses the right to apply the simplified taxation system. With such a contract must either switch to a tax accounting "income minus expenses" or the general system of taxation, explained back in 2010 by the Ministry of Finance. Unfortunately, people simply forget about it, which could eventually lead to negative tax consequences.

Difficulties also arise when the limits are exceeded and the transition to a common system is necessary: VAT appears and the overall tax burden increases. This is why the blogger environment often involves a scheme to split the business. This is exactly what the blogger E. Blinovskaya is accused of doing.

In terms of "splitting" the infobusiness, there are a number of circumstances that can draw the attention of tax authorities to the sale of infoproducts via the Internet:

• The whole project group working on the creation of an infoproduct applies a special tax regime - usually it is STS.
• Functions and risks between participants in the project group are poorly delineated or not delineated in principle.
• Civil-law relations between members of the project group are not formalized in any way or are formalized improperly.
• The members of the project group can not explain what they do, and could not explain the principle by which payments are distributed between them.
• Internet acquiring accepts payment for any of the individuals involved in the project.
• Expansion of the project group occurs whenever group members receive revenues that are close to the UST limits.
• In their dealings with clients, project group members position themselves as creators of a single product.

As a general rule, if the individual entrepreneur blogger conducts seminars or webinars on his own, where he acts as an expert in front of the audience, he does not need to obtain a license for educational activities", said Evgeniya Zainchukovskaya, senior tax consultant of Tax Compliance.

You can read the full article at the link.