Because of the falling ruble exchange rate, many freelancers have long been working for foreign customers. Among them, not everyone wants to cooperate with ordinary individuals: large customers require to draw up a contract and pay for work in foreign currency. To cover a new market, you will have to register as an entrepreneur and comply with serious currency legislation. We tried to tell all these rules in clear words.

Register IP

With the registration of the business there is a duty to keep accounts. At Ipshnik it is simple, so at first it is better not to look in the direction of the LLC.
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The company attracts start-up businessmen with limited liability: it is believed that in case of bankruptcy you risk only the authorized capital. But this is not so - the state provided for subsidiary liability. If the company turns out to be bankrupt, then both directors and founders can be forced to pay off debts (the list of persons who can be held accountable for the activities of the organization is, in fact, public). Personal property can be saved only if there is evidence that they acted in the interests of the organization. The logic of the legislators is simple: the owners themselves have made a bankruptcy, so they will have to take the obligatory payments.

Open currency account

For payments in foreign currency with large customers you will need a currency account. When choosing a bank, in addition to such obvious advantages as reliability, maintenance cost and speed of payments, pay attention to the convenience of the Internet bank, the possibility of providing documents online and the adequacy of experts in the currency control department. When the first income in foreign currency arrives, these advantages will make your life much easier.

The package of documents for opening a currency account is very similar to the opening of a regular current account IP. Each bank has its own requirements for documents, so check the information in advance in the branch or on the bank’s website. If you open an account in the same bank where you already have a ruble account, the whole procedure is greatly simplified.

After completing all the formalities, the bank will open a currency account, and there is also a transit account for it. Why two accounts: income from abroad must pass through currency control, therefore initially all money will be credited to a special transit account. At this moment, you can not manage your income yet. As soon as currency control experts are convinced of the legality of the proceeds, the money can be withdrawn to the current currency account or immediately sell the currency. Otherwise, the amount will be refunded to your payer.

Is it possible to work with Paypal and Payoneer in order not to bother with currency controls?

We knew that you would ask such a question and were prepared in advance. Freelancers love working with these sites, so we will tell you more about them from the point of view of the law.

In 2013, Paypal received a license from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and provided users with the opportunity to withdraw money to accounts in Russian banks. For business, you can legally use only a corporate account in Paypal, which is tied to a ruble settlement account. All payments from abroad in the currency are automatically converted into rubles on the side of the payment system Paypal, so there will be no currency control (you get credited in rubles, not in currency).

Of the minuses:

• You can only pay with the account of the physical person, according to the law, settlements between individual entrepreneurs and organizations are prohibited;
• Paypal users complain about the unfavorable rate of conversion of currency earnings into rubles.

Payoneer works differently: a foreign bank issues a card to you. In our legislation, this is considered as opening a bank account outside the Russian Federation, and this should be reported to the tax office. In addition, since 2015, it has been established the obligation to submit reports on the movement of money on an account in foreign banks. Now the order and form of such statements are not established, but it cannot be excluded in the near future. Of the minuses, the cardholders point out a bad commission for cash withdrawal and a daily limit on card payments and cash withdrawals.

Contract with a foreign customer

Most often the contract is made in two languages: in Russian and in English. By agreement with the customer, instead of a full-fledged contract, you can issue an invoice, in which all the conditions of the transaction (like a Russian account-contract) will be specified. Payment from the customer will be a confirmation that the terms of the transaction are accepted.

In drawing up the contract, pay special attention to the terms of payment, which is very important for currency control. When passing through control, you must inform the bank about the maximum time for receipt of payment. If the customer transfers the money later than the deadline specified in the contract, disputes with currency control experts may arise.

The Code of Administrative Offenses punishes non-receipt of foreign currency on time - a penalty of 1/150 of the refinancing rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (valid for the period of delay) of the amount of money credited with violation of the term for each day of delay and / or 3/4 to one the amount of money not credited to the account. Although there is judicial practice with a position where the delay in payment due to the customer’s fault is not a violation, it is better to prevent the dispute in advance.

Think about how to designate a payment term in a contract. It may be better not to set it entirely or significantly increase the maximum limit. But then you have to be on the alert and influence the counterparty so that he does not delay payment, taking advantage of the opportunity. And do not forget to stipulate in advance who will incur costs on the commission for bank transfer to avoid disagreements.

And the last tip on the contract: in order not to issue closing documents, stipulate in the contract that the services are considered to be rendered and works accepted after the expiration of a certain period from the moment of payment by the customer.

If the amount of the contract is more than 50,000 US dollars, a passport is required.

It is necessary for currency control, so you should take care in advance. To execute it, submit the completed form with supporting documents. Usually the bank helps to cope with all the papers for an additional fee.

Currency control

Advance notice: currency control should be taken seriously, because penalties for violations can reach the full amount of the contract.

When the money goes to the transit account, the bank will immediately inform about it. In order to pass the currency control, within 15 working days from the moment of receiving the money to the transit account, provide a certificate of currency transactions with supporting documents: a contract or passport of the transaction. Together with the passport of the transaction, acts, invoices and a certificate of supporting documents are provided. In order not to study the procedure for filling out all these certificates, you can again contact the bank for help.

If you want to get to the bottom of the truth, the bank or tax have the right to ask you for documents on currency transactions for carrying out currency control and verification. Save contracts, passport transactions and all documents confirming your foreign exchange transactions. There is a complete list in the law that may be asked.

How to pay taxes on it

At the end of all the paper designs, you can finally manage freely. But before you need to put a final point in the legal red tape - to calculate the tax on income in foreign currency.

Taxes are always calculated in rubles, so recalculate the amount of income at the rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, which is set at the date of receipt of money to the transit account. The current rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation can be viewed on the website cbr.ru. Revenue in foreign currency is always taken into account at the date of receipt of money on the transit account.

And what to do with the exchange rate difference?

Most often this refers to a change in the exchange rate while it is stored on the account. Oddly enough, for the tax on the simplified tax system such a difference does not matter. You need to take into account only the exchange rate difference that arises when selling foreign currency at a rate higher than the rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on the day the currency is sold. In such cases, you have a benefit, which will have to pay tax. Negative exchange difference in expenses of the simplified taxation system is not taken into account

Finally, we recall, Elba helps in working with foreign currency accounts. You just need to import a bank statement, and for tax accounting the system will already independently calculate foreign currency income in rubles and calculate the exchange difference.