Reimbursement of mobile communications to an employee. Order for compensation for mobile communications

Is it possible to include reimbursement (compensation) for cellular communications as expenses to reduce income tax and will this payment be considered employee income for calculating wage taxes. The employee enters into an agreement with the telecom operator independently; the SIM card and phone belong to the employee. Details will not be provided by employees. We have drawn up an order on the limit for positions, additional agreements to the employment contract and with an indication in the charter of the enterprise about reimbursement of cellular communications

To provide employees with mobile communications, you can compensate employees for the cost of calls for business purposes from their personal mobile phone. The amounts of such compensation are not subject to personal income tax and insurance contributions. When calculating income tax, compensation for expenses for business calls from a personal telephone can be included in other expenses. Moreover, these expenses must be economically justified and documented. The list of documents confirming the production nature of telephone conversations is not defined by law. Controlling agencies recommend confirming the production nature of telephone conversations the following documents:

orders of the head of the organization on approval of the list of employees who use personal phones;

written agreements on the use of personal phones by employees at work;

detailed accounts of mobile operators;

job descriptions that state when performing what duties an employee can use mobile communications;

applications from employees for reimbursement of expenses for official calls from personal phones;

copies of documents confirming that the telephone number used belongs to the employee.

In the absence of detailed conversations, it is possible controversial issues from the tax authorities on the legality and validity of such expenses. At the same time, there is a positive arbitrage practice for the benefit of taxpayers. In any case, if there is no call detail, stipulate in the organization’s internal documents the obligation of employees to draw up reports on business calls made during the month from a personal mobile phone.

The rationale for this position is given below in the materials of the Glavbukh System

To provide an employee with mobile communications, an organization can not only connect to a cellular operator itself, but also compensate employees for the cost of calls from their personal mobile phone.

Types of payments

When using his own mobile phone for work, an employee has the right to receive two types of payments:

reimbursement of the cost of business calls.*

contributions for compulsory pension (social, medical) insurance (subclause “and” clause 2, part 1, article 9 of the Law of July 24, 2009 No. 212-FZ, letter of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated August 6, 2010 No. 2538-19 );

contributions for insurance against accidents and occupational diseases (paragraph 10, subparagraph 2, paragraph 1, article 20.2 of the Law of July 24, 1998 No. 125-FZ).*

BASIC: income tax

When calculating income tax, include compensation for expenses for business calls from a personal telephone as part of other expenses (). Expenses must be economically justified and documented (Clause 1, Article 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).*

If an organization uses the accrual method, then the tax base can be reduced as applications and documents are received from employees confirming the cost of official negotiations (subclause 3, clause 7, article 272 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). If the organization uses the cash method, write off expenses only after the actual payment of compensation (clause 3 of Article 273 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

BASIS: documentary evidence

Situation: what documents confirm the production nature of an employee’s conversations on a mobile phone. The organization compensates employees for the cost of calls from their personal mobile phone

The list of documents confirming the production nature of telephone conversations is not defined by law. Despite this, the courts are inclined to believe that the organization is obliged to prove the connection between the costs of paying for communication services and its production activities (see, for example, resolutions of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow District dated January 19, 2009 No. KA-A40/12732-08, West Siberian District dated May 4, 2005 No. F04-2733/2005 (10928-A27-40) and East Siberian District dated May 27, 2005 No. A58-1983/03-F02-2300/05-S1).

The chief accountant advises: there are arguments that allow organizations to take into account the costs of paying for mobile communication services without detailed invoices when taxing. They are as follows.

The Tax Code of the Russian Federation does not contain a list of mandatory documents that can be used to confirm expenses incurred. Moreover, the fact of expenses can be confirmed by any document, even indirectly indicating this (clause 1 of Article 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Neither tax legislation, nor communications legislation, nor accounting legislation contain requirements for mandatory decoding of conversations made, receiving detailed invoices and drawing up a report on each call. In addition, the content of the negotiations constitutes a legally protected communication secret (). This means that the organization is not obliged to confirm the production nature of these expenses by detailing the accounts.

1. How to confirm the validity of expenses for cellular communications.

2. How to register the use of personal phones and SIM cards by employees for business purposes.

3. In what order are cellular communications expenses reflected in accounting and tax accounting?

Expenses for communication services are one of those types of expenses that almost any organization and individual entrepreneur has. Moreover, an increasingly large share of these costs is occupied by cellular communication services. And this is not surprising, because cellular, or mobile, communications allow you to solve work issues much more quickly, and for some workers, using a landline phone is simply impossible. So, for example, without mobile phones when carrying out labor activity It is indispensable for employees with a traveling nature of work, as well as whose work involves frequent business trips. Therefore, employers are faced with the need to provide their employees with cellular communications, and to do this in a way that takes into account the interests of employees and their own, while avoiding claims from the tax authorities. Read the article on how to do this.

Providing employees with cellular communications is possible in two options:

• Corporate cellular communication: the employer enters into an agreement with the mobile operator, and employees are given SIM cards belonging to the employer for use.

• Reimbursement of employee expenses for cellular communications: each employee enters into an agreement with a mobile operator on his own behalf and uses a personal SIM card for business calls.

The selected method (or combination thereof), as well as all essential conditions for the use of cellular communications by employees for business purposes, must be fixed in the local normative act. Such a document could be, for example, Regulations on providing employees with cellular communications.

In tax accounting, expenses for cellular communication services, including the payment of compensation to employees for cellular communication expenses, accepted both for calculating income tax (clause 25, clause 1, article 264), and under the simplified tax system (clause 18, clause 1, article 346.16 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). By general rule expenses for cellular communications must be economically justified and documented. Moreover, the procedure for documenting such expenses directly depends on the method of providing employees with cellular communications.

Corporate cellular communication

To confirm expenses for corporate cellular communications, you will need the following: documentation(Letter of the Ministry of Finance dated June 23, 2011 No. 03-03-06/1/378):

• agreement with a cellular operator;
• invoice for services rendered;
• a list of positions of employees using cellular communications to perform job duties approved by the head of the organization. The specified list of positions can be enshrined in a separate order or specified in the Regulations on providing employees with cellular communications.

In some cases, the following is also required:

• invoice – for VAT taxpayers for the purpose of deducting “input” VAT (clause 1 of Article 172 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
• a document confirming payment for the services of a cellular operator - for organizations using the simplified tax system (clause 2 of article 346.17 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

In addition to the listed documents, tax inspectors often request additional documents confirming the economic justification of expenses for cellular communication services:

• job descriptions of employees who use cellular communications, as confirmation that the use of cellular communications is necessary to perform their job duties;
• employment contracts (collective agreement) with employees, which stipulate the conditions for providing cellular communications or provide a link to the relevant local act (Regulations on providing employees with cellular communications);
• details of bills for communication services, which indicate the telephone numbers of all subscribers with whom negotiations were conducted, as confirmation that the negotiations were of a work and not personal nature.

As for detailing bills for cellular communication services, the mandatory nature of such a document is ambiguous. The Ministry of Finance in some letters indicates that detail is required (Letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated January 19, 2009 No. 03-03-07/2, dated June 5, 2008 No. 03-03-06/1/350, dated July 27, 2006 No. 03-03- 04/3/15). However, the courts in most cases do not consider the lack of detail as a basis for not accepting expenses for cellular communications for tax accounting (Resolutions of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow Region dated June 22, 2010 No. KA-A40/6056-10, dated January 29, 2010 No. KA-A40/14759-09- 2, FAS PO dated May 23, 2008 in case No. A55-10554/07). Basically, the courts refer to the fact that the Tax Code of the Russian Federation does not contain a requirement for mandatory confirmation of communication expenses with a detailed invoice. In addition, the detail contains only telephone numbers, however, it does not reveal the nature and content of the conversation (business or personal).

! Note: If you decide to “hedge yourselves” and confirm the validity of expenses for cellular communication services by detailing the bills, you must keep in mind that if there is detail, it will certainly become the subject of an audit by the tax authorities. That's why the details need not just be attached to the invoice, but actually checked and cut off all personal conversations (that is, fees for them cannot be included in tax expenses). It is advisable to reflect the fact that the details have been verified, for example, by placing a mark on the document itself, indicating the date and signature of the responsible person.

Accounting for phones and SIM cards

With the “corporate” option of providing employees with cellular communications, SIM cards with telephone numbers “linked” to them belong to the employer and are issued to employees for use. However, SIM cards by themselves, as you know, do not work: you need phones (or other devices). And here, as a rule, one of two options is used:

• telephones are purchased by the employer and given to employees for use;
• workers use personal phones. In this case, employees may be paid, or.

A third option is often encountered: the organization does not have its own cell phones, and the use of employees’ personal phones is not formalized in any way. At the same time, cellular communications costs are regularly taken into account based on invoices issued by the operator. In this case, the legality of accepting expenses for cellular communications will most likely be questioned by tax inspectors. However, taxpayers have a chance to prove their case. Firstly, the Tax Code of the Russian Federation does not contain a requirement for the mandatory availability of telephones for the recognition of communication expenses (25 clause 1 of Article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Secondly, the courts have more than once sided with taxpayers, confirming the legality of accepting expenses for cellular communications for tax accounting even in the absence of telephones (Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the North-West District dated April 24, 2007 in case No. A56-33529/2006; Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow Region dated July 21, 2005 No. KA-A41/6715-05). And yet, in order not to give tax officials an extra reason for complaints, it makes sense to take care of documenting the use of cell phones by employees.

As for SIM cards, the cost of their acquisition may be reflected:

• as part of material expenses (clause 3, clause 1, clause 2, article 254, clause 5, clause 1, article 346.16 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). If the connection fee is greater than the amount credited to the account as an advance payment, then the difference will be the cost of the SIM card;
• if the entire amount paid upon connection is credited to the account, then the cost of the SIM card is zero, and the paid amount is taken into account as an advance for communication services.

Since SIM cards are the property of the employer and are transferred to employees for temporary use, it is advisable to keep off-balance sheet accounting of SIM cards with analytics on phone numbers and employees.

! Note: The transfer of the SIM card (and phone) to the employee must be documented. For this purpose, you can use the procedure established in the organization for documenting the movement of goods, or develop and approve special forms of primary documents, for example, a log of issuing phones and SIM cards to employees. Documentation of the transfer of SIM cards to employees serves as proof that a specific employee uses a specific telephone number, and if limits on cellular communication expenses are established, this will be the basis for collecting from the employee the amount exceeding the limit.

Setting limits on cell phone spending

If employees are provided with corporate cellular communications, the organization does not have the opportunity to selectively pay the operator for the cost of services: they will have to pay the entire amount indicated in the invoice, which the employees “talked” about. Therefore, in order not to overpay for personal conversations of employees, most often they are set limits on expenses for cellular communications or use an unlimited tariff.

• Unlimited tariff

The unlimited tariff has a significant advantage: you do not need to control the amount of employee expenses, since the fee for communication services is fixed and does not depend on the number and duration of calls (subscription fee). In addition, as the Ministry of Finance explained, paying for cellular communication services at an unlimited tariff does not prevent them from being taken into account for tax purposes (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated June 23, 2011 No. 03-03-06/1/378).

However, in some cases, it is more profitable for organizations to use a time-based tariff, and this, in turn, involves setting limits on cellular communications expenses for employees. If such limits are not set, all the benefits from using a time-based tariff may be eliminated big amount“extra” calls and, as a result, “extra” expenses.

• Setting limits

The fact of establishing limits on expenses for cellular communications for employees, as well as the amount of these limits, must be fixed in a separate order of the manager or in the Regulations on providing employees with cellular communications and made known to employees using corporate cellular communications.

Despite the fact that setting limits is primarily an internal measure aimed at disciplining employees, it should be kept in mind that for inspectors the presence of limits means only one thing: costs for cellular communications exceeding these limits are economically unjustified for the organization, and, accordingly, are not accepted for tax accounting purposes.

Of course, communication expense limits set for employees should be as close as possible to actual costs. But even this does not guarantee that the limits will not be exceeded. When employee exceeding the limit established for him costs for cellular communications, the following options are possible:

1. Exceeding the limit is caused by business needs (for example, using cellular communications on a business trip abroad, etc.).

In this case, it makes sense to make a one-time increase in the limit on cellular communications expenses for a specific employee. The increase in the limit must be documented by issuing an appropriate order from the manager (the basis may be a statement or memo from the employee indicating the reasons for the overexpenditure, as well as details of the invoice for communication services confirming the business nature of the calls).

1. Exceeding the limit is not related to the performance of work duties (making personal calls from a work number, etc.).

The fact that the above-limit cellular expenses are indeed personal in nature and not business-related can be confirmed by the itemization of the bill. In this case, the amount exceeding the limit:

• may be contributed by the employee voluntarily or collected from the employee in order to compensate for material damage caused to the employer (Chapter 39 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). With this option, the amount exceeding the limit:
  • is not the employee’s income subject to personal income tax;
  • not subject to insurance premiums;
  • taken into account as other expenses for tax purposes only after reimbursement by the employee. In this case, the amount of compensation paid by the employee (or collected from him) will be taken into account for tax purposes in income (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated October 13, 2010 No. 03-03-06/2/178).

! Note: the employer does not have the right to produce on his own initiative.

• may be “forgiven” to the employee. The amount of exceeding the limit, which is not reimbursed by the employee and is not collected from him, that is, paid at the expense of the employer:
  • is recognized as the employee's income in in kind and is subject to personal income tax (clause 1 of Article 2010, clause 1 of clause 2 of Article 211 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
  • subject to insurance premiums (clause 1, article 7 of Law No. 212-FZ);
  • is not taken into account in expenses for tax purposes (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated October 13, 2010 No. 03-03-06/2/178).

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, providing workers with cellular communications can be organized in the form of payment of compensation for cellular communications expenses. As a rule, with this option, compensation includes both payment for the use of employees’ personal cell phones for business purposes and reimbursement of expenses for communication services.

The processing and taxation of compensation for the use of personal cell phones is generally similar to the procedure that applies to any other personal property of employees, such as cars. You can read more about this in the articles: and.

To confirm the validity of compensation for cellular communications costs, the following will be required: documentation(Letters of the Ministry of Finance dated October 13, 2010 No. 03-03-06/2/178, Ministry of Health and Social Development dated August 6, 2010 No. 2538-19 (clause 3)):

• a list of positions of employees who use cellular communications to perform job duties approved by the manager;
• employee job description;
• an employment contract or other written agreement between the employer and employee, which establishes the amount and procedure for payment of compensation;
• a copy of the employee’s agreement with the cellular operator;
• a copy of the invoice for communication services, as well as details of the invoice, as confirmation of the “working” nature of the calls.

Compensation for cellular communications costs is usually established:

• in a fixed amount - in terms of compensation for the use of a personal cell phone;
• in the amount of actual expenses or within the established limit - in terms of reimbursement of expenses for cellular communication services.

Documented amount of compensation for employee expenses for cellular communications:

• not subject to personal income tax and insurance contributions (clause 3 of article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, subparagraph “and” clause 2 of part 1 of article 9 of Law No. 212-FZ, Letter of the Ministry of Finance dated 04/20/2015 No. 03-04-06/22274 );
• accepted for profit tax purposes and under the simplified tax system, as expenses for payment for communication services (clause 25, clause 1, article 264, clause 18, clause 1, article 346.16 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Accounting for cellular expenses

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Normative base

1. Tax Code of the Russian Federation
2. Federal Law of July 24, 2009 No. 212-FZ “On insurance contributions to the Pension Fund Russian Federation, Foundation social insurance Russian Federation, Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund"
3. Letter of the Ministry of Health and Social Development dated 06.08.2010 No. 2538-19
, .

What to do if employees use mobile communications both for work and for personal purposes, but in the collective and employment agreements there is not a word about compensation for the use of personal phones during work hours? Is it possible to make payments in this case and how should they be formalized so as not to raise questions among auditors from the Pension Fund of Russia?

To provide an employee with mobile communications, a company can “go” in several ways, including “connecting” the employee to a corporate tariff, transferring money directly to the mobile operator.

On the one hand, this is very convenient, because the right specialist always “in touch”. But on the other hand, the company will have to constantly confirm the validity and production nature of such payments. Please note that the law does not have a clear list for justifying the costs of paying for communication services, so it is worth adopting a list that has been tested and proven in practice. This should include contracts with mobile operators for the provision of services, orders from the manager to approve the list of employees who use personal phones to perform official duties. Information about whether the company will pay for the cellular communications of one or another employee can also be specified in the employment contract. And in collective agreement you can indicate for which positions cellular communications are provided at the company’s expense (Letter of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation for Moscow dated October 5, 2010 No. 16-15/104055@). In addition, we need job descriptions that would say in what position a person should be paid for mobile calls, as well as payment documents and invoices of the telecom operator (the need for such documents is evidenced by the following judicial practice: Determination of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated September 3, 2008 No. 11211 /08, Resolutions of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow District dated June 3, 2009 No. KA-A40/4697-09-2 and dated February 24, 2009 No. KA-A40/12268-08, Northwestern district dated January 15, 2009 No. A56-6560/2008, Central District dated March 6, 2009 No. A35-4080/07-C8).

Is detail needed?
“In addition to all of the above, the fact of expenses for production purposes can indirectly be confirmed by contracts with counterparties or business correspondence,” notes Anatoly Tsarev, deputy head of the legal service of a warehouse complex near Moscow. – At the same time, I would like to draw attention to the following: quite often during inspections, officials demand detailed invoices from company representatives - supposedly to make sure that negotiations with the number paid by the company were carried out exclusively on work issues. At the same time, auditors are afraid that in the absence of such transcripts, calls will be considered as personal negotiations with all the ensuing consequences. Keep in mind: officials do not have such powers! This follows from numerous rules of law, starting with Article 63 of the Law of July 7, 2003 No. 126-FZ, which clearly states the confidentiality of the content of negotiations, and ending with the letter of the tax authorities themselves (paragraph 8 of the Letter of the Ministry of Taxes of the Russian Federation of May 22, 2000 No. VG -9- 02/174) and arbitration practice (for example, Resolution of the FAS of the Volga District dated April 9, 2008 No. A57-11527/06). It is enough that the telephone conversations were made in work time and related to execution job responsibilities.

The company did not transfer money to its employees as compensation for “mobile” expenses. All payments were made directly to the mobile operator for communication services based on the invoices issued. Therefore, by their nature, such payments are not compensatory and are exclusively production in nature.

But, on the other hand, if you think that contacting inspectors is “more expensive for yourself” and at the same time you are sure that everything is in order with the calls, then you can immediately ask the operator for details. It is provided without any problems at the request of the company. However, I would not say that the detail itself makes it possible to accurately identify the content of conversations and completely confirm their production nature. Even with employees of a partner company, it is quite possible not to discuss the details of projects, but to “speak for life.” By the way, I know of a case where, having studied the details, the tax authorities demanded that the company also provide data about which employees of the companion company own the numbers to which “incoming” calls were made from the company being inspected, they say, what if they were not talking with colleagues, and with the girls at the reception. In my opinion, the situation was resolved by the fact that employees with paid numbers were actually forced to write almost explanatory notes for each call, and also contact the supplier and several of its employees for written confirmation of who exactly the numbers indicated in the details belong to.”

Payment, not compensation
But the above example is not the only case when emergency situations arise with confirmation of the production nature and validity of payment for employee mobile communications. For example, often auditors from the tax office or the Pension Fund try to equate them with deductions that “go” to compensate for conversations on personal phones. This is exactly what happened with an enterprise from the city of Verkhnyaya Salda, located in the Sverdlovsk region, where specialists from the Pension Fund came to check the correctness of calculation, completeness and timeliness of payment (transfer) of insurance premiums for compulsory health insurance.

Having studied the documents provided by the enterprise, officials noticed that the base for calculating contributions was underestimated. And this happened, as, again, it followed from the papers checked by Pension Fund employees, due to the lack of amounts to reimburse employees for expenses for the use of personal mobile phones. When the Pension Fund specialists asked the organization to explain this fact, the company’s employees replied that, in fact, there was no compensation, so the money was not transferred. But the company uses mobile communications in a different way: the “cellular” operator issues an invoice and on this basis the company transfers money. At the same time, employees are not given anything “in their hands.” This method of payment for communications is enshrined in the company’s internal documents, in particular in the director’s order, which clearly establishes the list of employees whose mobile calls are paid, as well as the purpose of these expenses - “to resolve production issues.”

Employees of the Pension Fund, of course, took all this into account, but at the same time decided that such “mobile payments” cannot be recognized as production costs, even despite the wording in the order of the head of the organization. And, having once again looked through all the documents, they equated these payments to wages, explaining this by the fact that employees used their phones not only for work needs, but also for personal conversations, so they should be subject to insurance premiums. And since this was not done on time, the officials offered the company not only to pay the arrears, but also to transfer fines and penalties.

There is a known case when, having studied the details, the tax authorities demanded that the company also provide data about which employees of the companion company own the numbers to which “incoming” calls were made from the company being inspected, they say, what if they were talking not with colleagues, but with the girls at the reception.

Having disagreed with this decision, representatives of the organization applied to arbitration with a demand to declare it invalid.

After studying all the documents provided, the judges of the first, appeal and cassation instances admitted that the officials were mistaken with their conclusions. They explained that the payments that alerted the auditors were in no way related to the salaries of employees. The arbitrators specifically drew attention to the fact that during the period verified by the Pension Fund of Russia specialists, payments to individuals for mobile communication services were not made at all. The expenses incurred by the insured are exclusively production in nature. And they were paid to the mobile operator for communication services on the basis of the invoices issued to them, and not to the employees of the enterprise for the use of personal devices. Accordingly, by their nature they are not compensation payments.

Money received by employees of an enterprise to make payments for communication services consumed by the enterprise are general business expenses and are not subject to inclusion in the base for calculating insurance premiums. And, therefore, the court’s decision in this part is correct (Decision of the Arbitration Court of the Sverdlovsk Region dated May 26, 2014, Resolution of the Seventeenth Arbitration court of appeal dated August 20, 2014 No. 17AP-9237/2014-AK and the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Ural District dated December 4, 2014 No. F09-8296/14 in case No. A60-8923/2014).

However, PFR officials decided to fight to the end and prepared an appeal to the highest court. But the panel of judges of the Supreme Court also agreed with the position of the organization. They confirmed that since paid mobile communications were not provided to all employees, but only to those named in the relevant order, this payment cannot be attributed to wages. The organization initially identified these costs as production costs and recorded them as “general” and “communication costs.”

The judges explained that according to the law, payments and other remunerations accrued by the organization in favor of individuals under employment contracts (Article 7 of Law No. 212-FZ). But in this case, there were neither these transfers nor the necessary wording in the contracts, nor were there any payroll statements for employees. Moreover, the money in question was not some kind of incentive and does not depend on people’s labor success. In other words, there is not a single reason to classify the disputed payments as wages. Therefore, based on all of the above, courts of all instances came to the conclusion that these expenses are of a production nature and are not subject to inclusion in the base for calculating insurance premiums (Determination of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of April 30, 2015 No. 309-KG15-1758 in case No. A60-8923 /2014).

L.V. Chkhutiashvili, auditor, member of the IPB of the Moscow region, Ph.D. econ. sciences

A work mobile phone, when an employer provides an employee with a device and (or) pays for mobile communications, is a common occurrence. How to correctly account for the costs of purchasing mobile phones and paying for communication services?

An employer can take two routes when providing mobile communications to employees:

1) connect them to the corporate tariff, thereby fully paying for mobile communications;

2) pay or reimburse expenses according to the tariff used by the employee.

In both cases it is possible various options: the employer can purchase telephone sets and issue them to employees with or without SIM cards, can issue only SIM cards, can transfer the number used by the employee to a corporate tariff, can pay (compensate) for mobile communications costs according to the tariff, which the employee uses, in whole or in part.

Income tax

As a general rule, expenses for mobile communications can be taken into account when taxing profits on the basis of subparagraph 25 of paragraph 1 of Article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. However, as we see, the range of expenses for providing employees with communication services can be quite wide, and not all of them can be written off based on this standard.

As stated in paragraph 1 of Article 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, any expenses recognized in tax accounting must be justified and documented. Justified expenses mean economically justified expenses, the assessment of which is expressed in monetary form. Documented expenses mean expenses supported by documents, including those drawn up in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. Any expenses are recognized as expenses, provided that they are incurred to carry out activities aimed at generating income.

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation has repeatedly indicated that the taxpayer himself determines the validity and expediency of expenses (Definitions dated June 4, 2007 No. 366-O-P and dated December 16, 2008 No. 1072-O-O). The Ministry of Finance of Russia also agrees with this (letters dated 05/21/2010 No. 03-03-06/1/341 and dated 01/21/2010 No. 03-03-06/1/14).

In Resolution No. 8905/10 dated 03/09/2011, the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation indicated that the Tax Code of the Russian Federation does not contain provisions allowing tax authority evaluate the taxpayer's expenses from the standpoint of their economic feasibility. Business entities have independence in making management decisions. The justification of expenses should not be assessed from the point of view of their expediency.

Mobile phone

When starting to account for mobile communications expenses, you first need to record the costs of purchasing a mobile phone. The procedure for accounting for its cost for profit tax purposes will depend on the price of the phone (we are talking about the price of the phone itself, excluding the cost of the SIM card).

Phones costing more than 40,000 rubles. relate to depreciable property, the acquisition costs of which reduce taxable profit through the depreciation mechanism (clause 1 of Article 256 of the Tax Code).

If the cost of the device is less than 40,000 rubles, the organization has the opportunity to write off the costs of its purchase at a time. Such amounts are included in material costs in full on the date the telephone is put into operation (subclause 3, clause 1, article 254 of the Tax Code).

The transfer of mobile phones to employees must be carried out on a separate statement signed by employees who, from the moment they receive the phones, are responsible for their safety and will be required to return them upon dismissal from the organization. Can an employee take the phone with him, receive it as a gift, or buy it at the residual value from the organization? These issues are always resolved individually by agreement of the parties.

When an employee uses his personal mobile phone for work calls, the organization can compensate him for use, wear and tear (depreciation), as well as expenses associated with the use of such property, the amount of which is determined by agreement of the parties employment contract(Article 188 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

The use of an employee’s personal property for business purposes must be determined by his job responsibilities and the nature of his work. This is indicated by the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia in letters dated 08/06/2010 No. 2538-19 (clause 3), dated 03/12/2010 No. 550-19, dated 05/26/2010 No. 1343-19.

As noted in the letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated March 2, 2006 No. 03-05-01-04/43, the amount of reimbursement of expenses must correspond to the economically justified costs associated with the actual use of the employee’s personal property for the purposes of work. The organization must have documents (or their certified in the prescribed manner copies) confirming both the ownership of the property used and the expenses incurred when using this property for work purposes.

Confirmation of both the fact that the expenses are of a production nature and that the ownership of the property used belongs to the employee must be the corresponding administrative documents. The amount of reimbursement may:

Determined by agreement between the employee and the employer in writing in the form of a separate document (letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated March 2, 2006 No. 03-05-01-04/43 and dated November 2, 2004 No. 03-05-01-04/72);

Be fixed in job description this employee, which indicates the need to provide the employee in the corresponding position with mobile communications (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated May 23, 2005 No. 03-03-01-04/1/275) or in the employment contract itself (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated December 31, 2004 No. 03- 03-01-04/1/194).

For these expenses to be economically justified, it is necessary to prove that the employee used a personal mobile phone for work purposes. The production nature of such expenses can be confirmed by such documents as an employee memo describing the reasons for calls from a personal cell phone, detailed account details, an order or order from the manager to pay the cost of calls.

Sim cards

A SIM card is essentially a tool used to connect to mobile communication services. This means that expenses for the purchase of SIM cards can be written off on the basis of subparagraph 25 of paragraph 1 of Article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation as expenses for payment for communication services.

As a rule, an organization purchases SIM cards when it enters into an agreement with a mobile operator to connect to a corporate or business tariff. However, not all cards can be activated and the amounts credited to the accounts can be used. The SIM card may be given to the employee or lost. Therefore, the costs of purchasing SIM cards are taken into account in tax accounting as material expenses of the organization.

If, according to the rules of the mobile operator, the cost of the SIM card is fully or partially credited to the subscriber’s account and will be spent on payment for communication services in the future, such cost (part of it) of the SIM card must be reflected in tax accounting as it is spent based on the invoices of the telecom operator (subparagraph 3, paragraph 7, article 272, paragraphs 1 and 2, article 318 of the Tax Code). If the amount paid for the SIM card is not credited to the subscriber account, the organization can take such expenses into account at the time of purchase.

The transfer of SIM cards, as well as mobile phones, to employees must be carried out on a separate statement signed by the employees.

Payment for mobile communications

It would be rational for an organization to set limits on payment for calls to employees connected to corporate communications and fix them in an employment contract or in a separate local regulation. At the same time, you should sign an agreement with the telecom operator. In this case, the organization will be able to take into account the invoice amount within the established limit in general business expenses.

The Ministry of Finance in a letter dated July 27. 2006 No. 03-03-04/3/15 recommended the following methodology: “In tax accounting, the employee exceeding the established limit will be taken into account as part of other expenses only after the employee reimburses the company for the specified expenses. In this case, the compensation paid by the employee will be taken into account for tax purposes in income from sales.” Thus, the cost of products, works, and services of the organization will not include the costs of personal conversations of employees via mobile communications.

Employees should be familiarized with the order, against signature, according to which conversations on personal topics should not be conducted on the office phone. If telephones connected at unlimited rates are used by employees for both work-related and personal calls, the organization must approve size limit expenses reimbursed to the employee. This amount may vary depending on the position held by the employee. This approach is fully consistent with the position of the Ministry of Finance, set out in letter No. 03-03-04/2/217 dated October 13, 2006.

Most organizations that pay their employees for mobile communications prefer to connect to a corporate tariff plan. This allows you to significantly save on the cost of paying for cellular communication services. This is both economically beneficial - the company receives large discounts from the servicing telephone company, and practically - expenses are displayed in documents as one amount, which is convenient for billing. Such tariffs provide preferential calls between employees of the same organization and much more.

The procedure for accounting for mobile communications expenses depends on which tariff plan was chosen by the organization: unlimited or with per-minute (per-second) billing.

Taxpayer's expenses for postal, telegraph and other similar services, expenses for payment for communication services, computer centers and banks, including expenses for fax and satellite communication services, e-mail, as well as information systems(SWIFT, Internet and other similar systems) are included in other costs associated with production and sales. This is stated in subparagraph 25 of paragraph 1 of Article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

The Ministry of Finance of Russia and the courts allow taking into account expenses for mobile communications at unlimited tariffs for the purposes of calculating the tax base for income tax (letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated June 23, 2011 No. 03-03-06/1/378 and dated October 13, 2006 No. 03-03- 04/2/217, FAS resolution North Caucasus District dated October 27, 2009 in case No. A32-246/2008-12/27). The main thing is that such expenses are economically justified and documented (clause 1 of Article 252 of the Tax Code).

Tariff plans are usually expensive, and not every organization can afford them. A fixed monthly fee, as a rule, allows employees of an organization to communicate freely only within the region where they are located. Long distance and international calls are charged separately.

Most organizations choose tariff plans with per-minute billing and set a limit on compensation for mobile calls (internal limit). The employee is informed about this limit and the procedure for compensating expenses for mobile communications within the organization by signing.

As a rule, a special order is issued for these purposes. Maximum size funds paid by the organization may be specified in the employment contract with it (letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia for Moscow dated October 5, 2010 No. 16-15/104055@).

It should be noted that the Russian Ministry of Finance is of the opinion that even those calls that are made within the corporate limit may not be made for work purposes. This means that to confirm expenses for mobile communications, the following documents are required (letter dated January 19, 2009 No. 03-03-07/2):

A list of employee positions approved by the head of the organization who are provided with mobile communications for work purposes;

Agreement with the operator for the provision of communication services;

Detailed invoices of the telecom operator (on what numbers, when and for what amount were negotiations carried out with subscribers).

The letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated July 27, 2006 No. 03-03-04/3/15, on the basis of which the letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia for Moscow dated September 20, 2006 No. 20-12/83834.1 was issued, explains that the form of a detailed account must contain details of the total amount of payment for the services provided by the cellular operator in the context of separate sub-accounts opened for each subscriber number registered with the taxpayer, including: telephone numbers of all subscribers, dates and times of negotiations, service tariffs.

However, it is not enough to have a transcript indicating the numbers with which negotiations were conducted; you also need to prove that these numbers belong to the counterparties. The telephone numbers indicated in the decryption must appear in official correspondence, contracts, certificates of completion of work, delivery notes, invoices, etc.

This is a difficult task. Often, representatives of counterparties use cell numbers that are not included in contracts, or even personal phones. It is not surprising that printouts for specific business telephone numbers turn out to be insufficient documentation for analysis.

Tax legislation does not contain requirements for mandatory confirmation of mobile expenses with a document such as a telecom operator invoice. Most ships in Lately come to the conclusion that the lack of this document is not a basis for excluding amounts transferred to pay for mobile communications from expenses that reduce taxable profit (resolutions of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow District dated June 22, 2010 in case No. KA-A40/6056-10, dated January 29, 2010 No. KA-A40/14759 -09-2, FAS of the Central District dated 03/06/2009 No. A35-4080/07-S8, FAS of the Moscow District dated 12/24/2009 No. KA-A40/12845-09-P, FAS of the Ural District dated 12/08/2008 No. Ф09-9153 /08-C3, Federal Antimonopoly Service of the North-Western District dated June 27, 2007 No. A42-5778/2006).

The organization must issue an order with a list of employees or positions of employees who, in connection with their professional activity You must use a mobile connection for work. The order should indicate the numbers of mobile phones and SIM cards assigned to specific employees, the purpose of using mobile phones (letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated January 19, 2009 No. 03-03-07/2 and dated June 5, 2008 No. 03-03-06/1 /350).

This condition must also be reflected in the relevant job descriptions and employment contracts. In addition, the employee’s job description can state that in order to perform job duties (due to the traveling nature of the work due to official needs), he needs mobile communications.

The official position of the Ministry of Finance of Russia is that expenses for cellular communication services at unlimited tariffs for employees are taken into account when taxing profits within the limit established for the employee, based on his job responsibilities, by an internal local act of the organization (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated October 13, 2006 No. 03 -03-04/2/217). At the same time, in the Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the North Caucasus of October 27, 2009 No. A32-246/2008-12/27, the court recognized the company’s costs of providing its employee with unlimited mobile communications as justified due to the fact that he needs it to perform his official duties.

An organization cannot take into account the cost of over-limit calls as expenses for profit tax purposes (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated October 13, 2010 No. 03-03-06/2/178). An exception may be the issuance by the head of the organization of a special order, in which the standard for mobile communications expenses in a given month for a specific employee is increased due to business needs.

Otherwise, the excess amount is either withheld from the employee’s salary or paid from net profit. Moreover, if the employee compensates for the overexpenditure, the amount the employee exceeds the established limit will be taken into account as part of other expenses for tax purposes only after the employee has reimbursed the organization for these costs. In this case, the amount of compensation paid by the employee will be taken into account for tax purposes in income from sales (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated January 19, 2009 No. 03-03-07/2).

Based on Article 272 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, expenses are recognized in the reporting (tax) period in which they arise, based on the terms of transactions (for transactions with specific deadlines) and the principle of uniform and proportional generation of income and expenses (for transactions lasting more than one reporting period). (tax) period).

When an organization compensates an employee for cellular communications expenses associated with a personal mobile phone, it takes them into account as expenses that reduce taxable income.

VAT, personal income tax and insurance premiums

The provision of mobile communication services on the territory of the Russian Federation is recognized as subject to VAT (Article 146 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Mobile operator(if he is a VAT payer) is obliged to issue an invoice to the organization for mobile communication services, including VAT, and also to draw up and issue an invoice in the manner prescribed by Articles 168 and 169 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

The amount of VAT paid by an organization as part of the fee for mobile phones, SIM cards and mobile communication services can be deducted from the budget on the basis of Articles 171 and 172 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Cash compensation for the use of a cell phone belonging to an employee is not subject to personal income tax and insurance premiums within the limits established by the organization.

Using a phone with an unlimited business tariff for business purposes is the basis for writing off the full amount of the monthly fee for mobile communication services as expenses and exemption from personal income tax and insurance premiums, since documented expenses are not subject to personal income tax (clause 3 of Article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation) .

Based on subparagraph “and” of paragraph 2 of part 1 of article 9 Federal Law No. 212-FZ “On insurance contributions to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation, the Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund and territorial compulsory medical insurance funds” the amount of compensation paid to an employee of an organization for the use of personal property (mobile phone) is not subject to taxation insurance premiums if the use of this property is related to the performance of work duties ( traveling character performance of labor duties, official purposes), in the amount determined by the agreement between the organization and such employee (letter of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated August 6, 2010 No. 2538-19 (clause 3)).

As for the taxation of compensation amounts for mobile communications with personal income tax and insurance premiums, if the employee conducted conversations exclusively for official purposes, these payments will not have to be subject to personal income tax and insurance premiums (Clause 2 of Article 9 of the Law of July 24, 2009 No. 212 -FZ, clause 3, article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). If the conversations were conducted in the employee’s own interests and he does not compensate the employer for the corresponding expenses, personal income tax and insurance contributions will have to be transferred from these amounts to the budget.

Accounting

If there are all the necessary primary documents confirming the costs of mobile communication services, the organization can include such costs as part of the expenses for common types activities on the basis of paragraph 5 of PBU 10/99 “Expenses of the organization”. The specific method of accounting for them depends on the specifics of the enterprise’s activities (the types of business activities carried out, adopted accounting policy, management requirements for analytical data, etc.).

In accordance with paragraph 18 of PBU 10/99, expenses are recognized in the reporting period in which they occurred, regardless of the time of actual payment of funds and other forms of implementation.

Expenses are recognized in accounting if the following conditions are met:

1) the expense is made in accordance with a specific agreement, the requirements of legislative and regulatory acts, and business customs;

2) the amount of expense can be determined;

3) there is confidence that as a result of a specific transaction there will be a decrease in the economic benefits of the organization. There is certainty that a particular transaction will result in a reduction in the entity's economic benefits when the entity has transferred an asset or there is no uncertainty about the transfer of an asset.

If at least one of the above conditions is not met in relation to any expenses incurred by the organization, receivables are recognized in the organization’s accounting records (clause 16 of PBU 10/99).

Let us give examples of how expenses for mobile phones and cellular communications are reflected in accounting accounts.

Represented by ___________________________, acting on the basis of __________________, hereinafter referred to as the “Employer”, on the one hand, and ________________, hereinafter referred to as the “Employee”, on the other hand, guided by Art. 188 Labor Code Russian Federation, have concluded this additional agreement about the following:

1. An employee who is the owner of a mobile phone _____________ with the number: _____________________ (hereinafter - Telephone), mobile operator ______________________, undertakes:

1.1. Use the Telephone in the performance of your duties in accordance with the job description.

1.2. Provide the Employer with an agreement with the telecom operator for the provision of communication services.

2. The employer undertakes to pay:

2.1. Compensation for the use of the Phone in the amount of _____ (_________) rubles for ____________________________.

2.2. Expenses associated with the use of the Phone, based on an itemized invoice issued by the mobile operator. Invoices must contain a breakdown of all subscriber phone numbers, city and country codes, dates and times of conversations, duration and cost of calls.

3. A spending limit is set for using a mobile phone. telephone communication in the amount of __________ (________________) rubles for ____________________.

(Option: no more than ____________ (__________________) hours).

Amounts of expenses exceeding the specified limit are not reimbursed to the Employee.

4. Cash, specified in clause 2 of this agreement, are paid in the following terms and order: ____________________.

5. In all other respects, the provisions of the employment contract remain unchanged.

6. This additional agreement comes into force on "__"_____ ___.

7. This agreement is an integral part of the employment contract, drawn up in two copies, one for each party, and comes into force from the moment of signing.

Employer: Employee: ________________________________ _________________________________ (F.I.O., signature) (F.I.O., signature) M.P.

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