Direct and indirect production costs. Opening a case: what do direct and indirect costs include? Salary is a direct expense and what is indirect

Production costs are divided into direct and indirect. All of them, if justified and confirmed, ultimately reduce the tax base for profits, but at different times.

Let's see how to correctly classify your production costs and what you need to follow. After all, the correct division of such expenses will help make accounting as safe as possible in the event of a tax audit.

Why is it necessary to divide costs into direct and indirect?

Dividing the expenses of the current period into direct and indirect is required to correctly determine the moment of recognition of expenses as expenses that reduce the income of the current period:

• direct costs are written off to reduce the tax base only after the sale of products in the production costs of which they are taken into account. The generated amount of direct expenses of the current month is subject to monthly distribution between work in progress (work in progress) and products manufactured during the month (work performed, services provided). Then the amount of direct costs attributable to finished, shipped and sold products in the current month is calculated. Articles 318, 319 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

There is no clear methodology for allocating direct costs to the balances of work in progress and manufactured products in the Tax Code. Specific rules for such distribution are developed by the organization, taking into account the specifics of production;

• indirect costs are written off as a reduction in the tax base immediately - in the month in which they arose (without reference to the sale of products).

Please note that if certain costs are associated with generating income over several reporting periods, then it is necessary to distribute such expenses between different periods based on the principle of uniform recognition of income and expenses, and only then take them into account when forming a “profitable” base, based on whether they are are they direct or indirect and clause 1 art. 272 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. The Ministry of Finance recommends that, for example, lease payments be recognized evenly (if they relate to several periods) Letter of the Ministry of Finance dated 02/09/2016 No. 03-03-06/1/6519, costs for product certification and Letter of the Ministry of Finance dated March 18, 2013 No. 03-03-06/1/8186, costs of acquiring rights to software products when the contract specifies the period for granting non-exclusive rights Letter of the Ministry of Finance dated August 31, 2012 No. 03-03-06/2/95. It is also necessary to gradually recognize as a cost of the current period a one-time payment under an insurance contract clause 6 art. 272 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Thus, the smaller the list of direct expenses, the larger the list of indirect ones, which means that your costs will be taken into account faster when calculating taxable profit.

The list of direct expenses must be justified

In ch. 25 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the lists of both direct and indirect expenses are open. The organization itself chooses which group of expenses to assign certain costs to, and enshrines this in its accounting policies for tax purposes. Letters of the Ministry of Finance dated February 10, 2016 No. 03-03-06/3/6878, dated May 25, 2010 No. 03-03-06/2/101 (clause 3). Approved lists can be changed, but not more than once every 2 years Articles 318, 319 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

However, there are direct costs that are directly mentioned in paragraph 1 of Art. 318 of the Tax Code. This:

• costs of raw materials or materials used in the production of goods, components, semi-finished products - those costs that are named in subparagraph. 1, 4 p. 1 tbsp. 254 Tax Code of the Russian Federation;
• expenses for remuneration of personnel involved in the production process, as well as corresponding contributions to compulsory social insurance;
• depreciation amounts of fixed assets used in production.

Typically, organizations expand this list of direct costs to include costs:

• for services of third-party organizations directly related to the production of products (costs of processing raw materials on a toll basis, subcontracting work, etc.);
• for rent and utility payments for production premises;
• for insurance of production equipment and premises.

There are expenses that, based on their essence, may seem direct, but in tax accounting they can easily be classified as indirect. A striking example of this is the depreciation bonus. It (unlike ordinary depreciation) can be taken into account as an indirect expense, regardless of how and where the equipment is used, including when the depreciation bonus is accrued during reconstruction, completion or modernization and clause 3 art. 272 Tax Code of the Russian Federation; Letters of the Ministry of Finance dated August 20, 2014 No. 03-03-06/1/41628, dated May 28, 2013 No. 03-03-06/1/19228, dated December 14, 2011 No. 03-03-06/2/198.

In most cases, in order to remove some expense from the list of direct expenses (which are mentioned in Chapter 318 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation as indicative), compelling reasons are needed. Otherwise, tax claims are guaranteed. The inspectors believe that the mechanism for allocating production costs must contain economically sound indicators determined by the technological process. Letters of the Ministry of Finance dated August 30, 2013 No. 03-03-06/1/35755; Federal Tax Service dated February 24, 2011 No. KE-4-3/2952@.

If you approve an unreasonably narrow list of direct expenses in your accounting policy, the inspectors will not like it. Thus, one organization engaged in the production of automobiles took into account as direct expenses only materials (basic, returnable waste, purchased components and semi-finished products of its own production) and transportation and procurement costs. Everything else was accounted for as indirect costs. The inspectors considered that without equipment and workers it would be impossible to produce cars. This means that the list of direct expenses must include depreciation of fixed assets used in production, labor costs for personnel involved in the production process, as well as insurance premiums. And the court supported the inspection Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Northern Territory of October 15, 2013 No. A56-63786/2012.

In addition, tax authorities believe that if any expense cannot be attributed to a specific production process for the manufacture of any type of product (performance of work, provision of services), this does not mean that such an expense should be taken into account as indirect. The organization must, in its accounting policies, determine a reasonable mechanism for allocating such expenses to Letter of the Ministry of Finance dated December 7, 2012 No. 03-03-06/1/636. In other cases, the general rule applies: only when there is no real possibility of including individual costs in direct costs, using economically justified indicators, the organization can classify such costs as indirect costs. Letter of the Federal Tax Service dated February 24, 2011 No. KE-4-3/2952@.

According to the tax authorities, it is necessary to develop a distribution methodology even if you have several types of activities. They won’t let you write off all expenses as indirect without disputes. But sometimes the courts take the side of taxpayers. Once the following case was considered: a fishing enterprise took into account the costs of purchasing fuel and profit as indirect. The inspectorate insisted that they should be counted as direct, since without them it would be impossible to catch fish, process it and deliver it. However, the company was also engaged in the production of fish products from purchased raw materials, as well as in the rental of ships with crew. The court agreed that the organization did not have the opportunity to classify the disputed costs as direct expenses. Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service No. F03-5521/2013 dated 09.12.2013.

Disputes also arise when by-products appear spontaneously in the course of the main activity. Thus, one organization produced the main products (mineral mineral copper-pyrite ore) and by-products (low-grade sulfur-pyrite ore). At the same time, the extraction of the latter was forced. In accounting and tax accounting, the cost of by-products was determined only in the amount of expenses for its crushing and transportation. The inspection considered that all direct costs of ore extraction should be allocated to the extraction of both main and by-products. Note that with this approach, the cost of low-grade ore would be comparable (or even exceed) the cost of valuable ore, which is economically incorrect. The court did not support the inspectors. He pointed out that the Tax Code does not have a rule on determining the various compositions of direct costs in the production of main and by-products. Therefore, all direct costs of ore extraction are associated with the extraction of the main products and Resolution of the AS UO dated December 1, 2014 No. F09-7773/14.

Sometimes, in order to determine the importance and degree of participation of a particular type of cost in the production of products, an expert is needed. So, one day, tax officials, having studied the technological regulations, discovered that natural gas was used as a coolant in the production process. From this they concluded: the costs of purchasing gas should be taken into account as direct ones. But the cement production organization included them in indirect costs. The court supported the organization, pointing out that the tax authority made its conclusion without having special knowledge in the field of chemical technology and without involving an expert. Natural gas is not the basis and necessary component of cement, so it can be taken into account as an indirect consumption. Resolution of the AS ZSO dated December 18, 2014 No. Ф04-13294/2014.

Comparison with accounting

The basis for the tax list of direct expenses can be taken from the accounting list of costs included in the cost price. After all, it is from accounting that one can see how much this or that expense is related to the production of products. For example, insurance premiums from the salaries of production workers are taken into account as direct expenses in tax accounting if they are included in the cost of production in accounting. Letters of the Ministry of Finance dated May 30, 2012 No. 03-03-06/1/283, dated May 14, 2012 No. 03-03-06/1/247.

In accounting, the goal is to calculate the real costs of producing one product. The list of costs included in the cost of production may include only direct costs (in accounting, these are expenses that are directly needed for the production of products: raw materials, materials, wages of production workers, depreciation of production equipment, etc.). Or, the cost of production may include other types of expenses - general production and general economic expenses - in a certain proportion.

In accounting, there are several ways to calculate cost (for example, it can be full or truncated). The method chosen by the organization must be indicated in the accounting policies.

If in accounting the list of costs included in the cost price is too short, then there may also be problems when transferring it to tax accounting policy. Thus, in one legal dispute, an enterprise producing pasta determined a truncated cost in accounting, the formation of which was based on the distribution of costs into variable (direct) and fixed (indirect). Indirect costs included those associated with the production of several types of products, including the costs of maintaining and operating equipment, general production and general business expenses. The inspection considered this a mistake. However, the court agreed with the company’s arguments Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of August 4, 2014 No. A36-4628/2013, because accounting for depreciation as an indirect expense complies with industry accounting guidelines Methodological recommendations, approved. Ministry of Agriculture and Food 01/12/2000.

For other controversial situations that arise when classifying costs as indirect costs, read the article:

But, as a rule, the list of accounting direct expenses is wider than the list of tax direct expenses in paragraph 1 of Art. 318 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Therefore, if you use an accounting list for tax accounting, there should be no claims against you from the inspectors. Letter of the Ministry of Finance dated March 2, 2006 No. 03-03-04/1/176.

For example, if an organization produces only one type of product, then it is better to consider all production costs as direct tax expenses. Only general business expenses (for example, salaries of the directorate, accounting department and office rent) can be considered indirect tax expenses.

However, construction organizations have difficulties with the tax classification of general business expenses as direct or indirect:

• One construction company classified as direct all types of costs arising at the initial stage of construction of a real estate project, including the amount of land tax and rent for office premises. All these costs were taken into account after the completed residential building was commissioned. The tax authorities did not like this, but they were unable to prove that the disputed expenses should have been written off as indirect in the period of their occurrence. Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of June 26, 2014 No. A72-5730/2013;
• in another case, the tax authorities, on the contrary, did not like the fact that the construction organization took into account general business expenses (including salaries of management personnel) as indirect. They demanded the distribution of these costs among the facilities under construction. The controversial general business expenses were associated with holding exhibition and presentation events aimed at attracting the attention of investors to the project, that is, they were associated not only with construction activities. Therefore, the tax court did not support Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service No. A32-39866/2011 dated August 05, 2013.

If you change your accounting policy from the next year and some direct expenses become indirect, you will not be able to write off all accumulated direct expenses related to work in progress at a time as of January 1 of the year (in which the change in accounting policy comes into force). tax base Letters of the Ministry of Finance dated September 15, 2010 No. 03-03-06/1/588, dated May 20, 2010 No. 03-03-06/1/336. Such accumulated costs must still be written off as products are sold and Art. 313, paragraph 2 of Art. 318 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

This type of calculation is distinguished in the group of enterprise costs in order to calculate the cost of manufactured products.

Composition and types of indirect costs

Definition 2

General expenses are expenses of an enterprise that are associated with management needs and do not have a direct connection with the production process.

Definition 3

General production costs represent the organization's expenses for servicing its main and auxiliary production facilities.

Definition 4

Indirect costs of an enterprise, unlike direct costs, are not related to any specific type of product, but to the period of their occurrence.

Most of the indirect costs when analyzing and calculating the break-even point are constant and do not depend on the volume of products (works, services) produced.

It is not always possible to clearly classify an enterprise's costs as direct or indirect. Thus, costs that are direct for one organization may be indirect for another. Even similar types of expenses can be either direct or indirect, depending on the situation in which they arise. For example, the advertising costs of a certain product will be direct for this type of product, and the advertising costs of a company are an indirect type of costs for the products of this enterprise.

Indirect cost items

1. Administrative and management expenses of the organization.
2. Maintenance of the management apparatus of production units.
3. Costs of preparation and organization of the production process.
4. Costs for internal movement of components, materials, semi-finished products, as well as finished products.
5. Expenses for the maintenance of structures, buildings, equipment and vehicles, as well as expenses for their repair.
6. Amounts of depreciation of structures, buildings, equipment and vehicles.
7. Labor safety costs.
8. Costs of training, retraining and selection of personnel.
9. Payment for services provided to the enterprise by external companies, for example, communication services.
10. Communal payments.
11. Rent.
12. Mandatory deductions established by law (taxes, fees, payments).
13. Other expenses associated with the operation of the enterprise.

Accounting for indirect costs

Accounting for direct costs of an enterprise usually does not cause difficulties, but the distribution of indirect costs is usually associated with difficulties. This is due to the fact that the full cost of products, services or work often serves as the basis for the formation of the selling price, and all indirect costs must be distributed among the manufactured products. To do this, determine what share of overhead costs a particular product absorbs. For this purpose, an absorption coefficient is introduced, which is calculated on the basis of the distribution base.

One way to allocate indirect costs is to allocate overhead costs in proportion to all direct costs or direct labor costs. In the first case, the distribution base is the corresponding direct costs, and the absorption coefficient is the share of these direct costs for the production of each type of product in the total composition of the corresponding direct costs. This type of distribution of indirect costs is the most common.

There is also another method for calculating cost - direct costing. In this methodology, indirect costs are not included in the cost of the product, but are included in the final financial result, i.e. The full amount of indirect costs is deducted from profit.

Indirect costs are costs associated with the production and sale of products (works, services), which cannot be directly attributed to the manufacture of products (works, services) and can be taken into account in expenses in the period in which they are incurred.

All costs that are not classified as direct expenses in the accounting policy and are not non-operating expenses are recognized as indirect expenses.

Indirect costs include, for example, costs of communication services, office rent, etc.

The most important difference between direct expenses and indirect expenses is that the amount of indirect expenses in full relates to the expenses of the current reporting (tax) period, and direct expenses - to the expenses of the current period as goods and work are sold, that is, taking into account the balances of work in progress.

The exception is cases when the organization's activities are related to the provision of services. These taxpayers have the right to attribute the amount of direct expenses of the reporting (tax) period in full to the reduction of income from production and sales of this reporting (tax) period without distribution to the balances of work in progress.

The company determines whether expenses are classified as direct or indirect expenses separately for each production cycle.

If certain resources, according to technological regulations, are not included in the production cycle and are not an integral part of it, then the costs for them can be taken into account as part of indirect costs.

List of indirect costs

Indirect costs are costs that cannot be directly attributed to specific types of products (works, services).

Indirect costs include:

Administrative and management expenses;
expenses for heating and lighting of premises;
insurance costs;

expenses for payment of information, auditing, consulting, etc. services;
expenses associated with the sale of products;
other administrative expenses similar in purpose.

Reflection of indirect expenses in the income tax return

All indirect expenses for the reporting (tax) period are reflected on line 040 of Appendix No. 2 to Sheet 02 on an accrual basis from the beginning of the year.

Some types of indirect expenses included in line 040 must be shown separately, namely:

On line 041 - the amount of accrued taxes and fees (advance payments for them);
on line 042 - the amount of depreciation premium for fixed assets included in depreciation groups 1, 2, 8, 9 and 10;
on line 043 - the amount of depreciation bonus for fixed assets included in depreciation groups from 3 to 7;
on line 045 - the amount of expenses for social protection of disabled people;
on line 047 - the amount of expenses for the acquisition of land plots and the rights to conclude a land lease agreement;
on line 052 - the amount of R&D expenses.

In line 046 of Appendix No. 2 to Sheet 02, commercial organizations put a dash.

In this case, the sum of lines 041 - 047 and 052 cannot be greater than the indicator in line 040 of Appendix No. 2 to Sheet 02 of the declaration.

Distribution of indirect costs

The adequacy and accuracy of the distribution of indirect costs are of paramount importance for management policy at the enterprise. According to existing practice in Russia and in accordance with the norms of current legislation, the enterprise distributes indirect costs first by types (areas) of activity, and then (within each type of activity) by types of products (works, services).

Thus, the accuracy of determining the cost of production for individual technological lines and types of products depends on the rationality of the distribution of indirect costs. The latter, in turn, is very important for the pricing policy and structural policy of the enterprise (formation of the range of production and sales).

In the theory and practice of management accounting, sometimes there is a confusion between the concepts of indirect and periodic (conditionally fixed) expenses. These two categories of costs must be clearly distinguished.

Indirect costs are variable, i.e. they are directly related to product output. In other words, the production process is the generator of this type of cost. To account for indirect expenses, the collection and distribution account 25 General production expenses is used. From this account, at the end of the month, costs are written off to the accounts of the main and auxiliary production (accounts 20, 23).

Periodic expenses are related to the general conditions of the enterprise and do not depend on the output of specific types of products. Periodic expenses are recorded in account 26 General business expenses. At the end of the accounting period (usually a month or quarter), the balance of account 26 is written off directly to sales (to the debit of account 46) and is not distributed by type of product.

This article will discuss the distribution of indirect costs (account 25) in the context of calculating the direct cost of individual types of products (i.e., the variable part of costs). The difference between sales revenue and variable costs gives the so-called contribution margin, which should be sufficient to cover periodic expenses.

Determining variable costs by type of product is extremely important, since it is the dynamics of variable costs that determine the optimal level of output of specific types of products.

Methods for distributing indirect costs by type of product

There are two main methods for determining the cost of individual types of products, differing in the procedure for allocating indirect costs:

The first method - calculating the cost by type of product based on the plant-wide overhead application base - is that all indirect costs of the enterprise are taken into account on one synthetic account, and at the end of the accounting period they are distributed by type of product based on a single distribution base (total direct costs, direct material costs, equipment operating hours, etc.). The advantage of this method is that it is quite inexpensive. Its main drawback is that it leads to serious distortions in determining the real cost of various types of products. For example, an enterprise produces two types of products - A and B, while A is produced on the basis of machine technology, and B is produced by manual labor. Then, when applying the distribution base (Direct labor costs), the cost of the first type of product will be underestimated, the second - overestimated, and when using the distribution base (Equipment operating hours) - vice versa.
The second method - distribution of indirect costs at the department-wide overhead application base - is more labor-intensive than the previous one, but at the same time gives a more accurate picture of the cost of individual types of products.

When applying this method, indirect costs are taken into account at the division level with the opening of separate sub-accounts for each division. At the end of the accounting period, the distribution of indirect costs by type of product is made for each subaccount separately. Moreover, each subaccount has its own distribution base, reflecting the specifics of the department’s technological process. Thus, the indirect costs of an automated workshop can be distributed according to the types of products produced according to the operating hours of the equipment, and the indirect costs of a manual assembly workshop - according to direct labor costs.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to completely overcome distortions in the write-off of indirect costs even when using this method: firstly, the task of distributing general plant indirect costs remains; secondly, within a particular division there may be distortions in the distribution of indirect costs across various production lines.

Selection of indirect cost distribution bases

The choice of one or another distribution base is determined by the functional specifics of the enterprise (when using a plant-wide distribution base) or its individual services (when taking into account indirect costs at the department level). In this case, the main criterion for choosing a distribution base is the combination of different types of resources in a particular technological line.

The main resources used in the production of products are:

Material working capital (raw materials, materials, components);
fixed assets (in terms of depreciation);
labor resources (in terms of wages).

Thus, the technological process of individual divisions/shops of the enterprise varies in degree:

Labor intensity,
capital intensity,
material consumption.

If the activity of a division is labor-intensive (a large share of manual labor), then it is better to distribute the general production costs of this division by type of product, taking as a basis indicators related to the consumption of labor resources.

The following can be used as a basis for the distribution of indirect costs of this unit:

Actual direct labor costs (credit to account 70 in correspondence with debit to account 20 by type of product);
standard (planned) direct labor costs;
the number of personnel involved in a particular technological process.

If the division's activities are capital-intensive (automated production lines), then the overhead costs of this division can be distributed by type of product, taking as a basis indicators related to the use of fixed assets.

Here, the following can be used as a basis for the distribution of indirect costs:

Depreciation charges by type of product;
planned (standard) operating hours of equipment;
actual operating hours of the equipment;
residual value of fixed assets involved in a particular technological process.

If the division’s activities are material-intensive (the costs added to the cost of products in a given division are mostly the costs of raw materials), then the following can be taken as the distribution base:

Actual direct costs of raw materials and materials (debit of account 20 in correspondence with credit of accounts 10 and 21);
planned direct costs of raw materials and materials.

If it is impossible to clearly determine the priorities of what the unit’s activities are (labor-intensive, capital-intensive or material-intensive), then it is possible to use combined distribution bases calculated on the basis of two or more types of resources:

Full direct material costs (current material costs plus depreciation) - with a large weight of raw materials, materials and fixed assets used;
added cost (depreciation plus direct labor costs) - with a large weight of labor resources and capital (fixed assets);
labor costs plus current material costs - with a large weight of raw materials, materials and manual labor;
full direct costs - in the absence of priority of any type of resource.

Distribution bases can also exist for the functional services of an enterprise (management apparatus). In this case, they characterize, as a rule, the quantitative aspect of one of the main functions performed by the service of the management apparatus.

Thus, the main distribution bases can be:

For the dispatch service - ton-kilometers transported;
for warehousing - standard costs per storage unit per day, multiplied by the average balance in the warehouse, or the cubic footage of storage of a unit of finished products;
for the shipping department - the number of contracts for the shipment of finished products.

Additional distribution bases for indirect costs

Calculating the most adequate basis for allocating indirect costs may require quite significant ongoing costs. Therefore, in a number of cases, it turns out to be advisable to use other, additional distribution bases, which, although less adequate, are also less expensive. Additional distribution bases, as a rule, are those financial indicators that are automatically calculated in the process of economic activity of the enterprise, and therefore their calculation does not require any additional costs.

Such indicators could be:

Issue volume;
volume of sales;
cost of sales;
production cost;
cost of purchasing raw materials and materials;
contribution margin (sales volume minus variable costs);
average number of personnel (in this case, the indirect costs of the department are written off to other departments based on their average number, and then distribution is made by type of product based on the distribution bases for these departments).

Most often, indicators of sales volume and cost (cost of sales, cost of production, cost of procurement of raw materials and materials) are used as additional bases for the distribution of indirect costs.

Sales volume is an additional distribution base for those departments whose activities are aimed at sales promotion. This could be, for example, the marketing department or the shipping department.

Cost of sales and cost of output can be used as an additional distribution base for those divisions whose activities cover a significant part of the financial cycle and/or the majority of types of products and technological processes. At the level of production divisions of the enterprise - this is the assembly shop, the technical control department, the motor transport service, and at the level of management services - the financial department, the legal department, and the information processing department.

The cost of purchasing raw materials, supplies and components is an additional distribution base for those departments whose functions and useful activities are aimed at incoming financial and material flows (dispatch services, logistics management).

Direct and indirect costs

For organizations that use the accrual method of income tax, expenses associated with production and sales (Article 253 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation) are divided into:

Direct expenses;
indirect costs (clause 1 of Article 318 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Direct and indirect costs

The Tax Code does not regulate the composition of direct expenses; only an approximate list of them is given. The organization must independently determine the composition of direct expenses and consolidate it in its accounting policies for tax purposes.

The list of non-operating expenses is given in Art. 265 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

In accordance with the Tax Code, all expenses that are taken into account when calculating income tax and that are not direct or non-operating are considered indirect expenses associated with production and sales.

Why is it necessary to separate direct and indirect costs?

The distribution of expenses into direct and indirect is important from the point of view of taking them into account when calculating the tax base for income tax. If direct costs are distributed between sold and unsold products, work in progress balances at the end of the month, then indirect costs are recognized as expenses of the reporting period and are fully included in expenses that are taken into account when taxing profits.

Indirect costs include, for example:

Material costs. These may include materials used to package goods; purchased equipment and workwear; expenses for the purchase of fuel and water used for technological purposes; purchased production services;
depreciation of fixed assets for general production and general economic purposes;
expenses for remuneration of employees, except for those employed in the production process, as well as contributions to extra-budgetary funds from these expenses;
expenses for compulsory and voluntary insurance;
other expenses associated with production and sales (Article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Other expenses include, in particular, amounts of taxes and fees (for example, property tax and transport tax), certification costs, rental payments, business travel expenses, legal, information and consulting services, advertising expenses, etc.

In trade organizations, indirect costs include all costs associated with production and sales, except:

The cost of purchasing goods sold in the reporting period;
transportation costs for delivering goods to the organization's warehouse (if they are not included in the purchase price of goods).

To bring accounting and tax accounting closer together in trade organizations, it is advisable to formulate the cost of purchased goods taking into account all actual costs associated with their purchase, including delivery costs to the organization’s warehouse. This procedure, provided for in clause 6 of PBU 5/01, is also permitted by the Tax Code (clause 3, clause 1, article 268 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). The organization only needs to consolidate this in its accounting policies.

If the organization does not take into account the costs of delivering goods to its warehouse in their cost, then such transport costs should be distributed between sold and unsold goods according to the average percentage of transport costs.

Transportation costs for delivering goods to customers' warehouses are always included in the indirect costs of the current month.

Accounting for indirect costs

Indirect costs include that part of material costs that were not included in the direct costs of the manufactured products.

All these expenses are fully attributed to the reduction of income from production and sales of a given reporting (tax) period and are reflected on line 020 - “Material expenses related to expenses of the current reporting (tax) period, with the exception of expenses related to direct” declaration for income tax.

In accounting, such expenses can be reflected in cost accounts: 26 “General business expenses”, 44 “Sale expenses”, and can also be recorded in accounts 08 “Investments in non-current assets” (payments for registration of rights to real estate and similar expenses) , 10 “Materials”, 91 “Other income and expenses” (amount of taxes).

Labor costs

As mentioned above, labor costs include any accruals to employees in cash and (or) in kind, provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation, labor and (or) collective agreements (with the exception of expenses specified in Article 270 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Labor costs are generated in tax accounting on a monthly basis, taking into account the method adopted by the organization for recognizing income and expenses.

Indirect labor costs include that part of them that is not included in the direct costs of this group. It is worth noting that the unified social tax relating to payments to non-production workers, in accordance with Art. 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation is taken into account as part of other expenses, in contrast to the amounts of the same tax accrued on the wages of personnel associated with the production process, which are classified as labor costs as part of direct expenses. The rule for assigning unified social tax to non-production personnel apparently does not apply to the amounts of the accrued reserve for upcoming vacation pay and for the payment of annual remuneration for long service, which, according to Art. 324.1 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation is formed and taken into account as part of labor costs for the current period with the amounts of the unified social tax included in it for upcoming payments. At the same time, the above article does not clarify for which employees the reservation is made.

For types of labor costs regulated by Chapter 25 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation in accordance with clause 3 of Art. 318 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the base for calculating the maximum amount of such expenses is determined by the cumulative total from the beginning of the tax period.

To those regulated according to clause 16 of Art. 254 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation includes expenses for voluntary insurance of employees.

Moreover, according to this subparagraph, expenses for voluntary insurance, taken into account for tax purposes, are divided into three groups, and for each group its own standard of expenses is established:

Payments under long-term life insurance contracts for employees, voluntary pension insurance and (or) non-state pension provision for employees are taken into account for tax purposes in an amount not exceeding 12% of the amount of labor costs;
- contributions under voluntary personal insurance contracts that provide for payment by insurers of medical expenses of insured employees are taken into account in an amount not exceeding 3% of the amount of labor costs;
- contributions under personal voluntary insurance contracts concluded exclusively in the event of the death of an insured employee or loss of disability by the insured employee in connection with the performance of his work duties, are taken into account for tax purposes in an amount not exceeding 10,000 rubles. per year per insured employee.

In addition, if the terms of the insurance (pension) agreement provide for the payment of an insurance (pension) contribution in a one-time payment, then under agreements concluded for more than one tax period, expenses are recognized evenly over the term of the agreement (clause 6 of Article 272 of the Tax Code RF).

Thus, if an organization incurs costs for voluntary insurance of its employees, then it needs to organize the accounting of labor costs in such a way that the tax accounting registers used allow obtaining the following data:

1) on the amount of labor costs excluding expenses for voluntary insurance of employees (for the current month and cumulatively from the beginning of the year). This data is necessary to calculate the standard in accordance with clause 16 of Art. 255 Tax Code of the Russian Federation;
2) on the expenses incurred for voluntary insurance of employees for the current month and on a cumulative basis from the beginning of the year for each of the above groups of expenses for voluntary insurance;
3) about the terms of concluded contracts.

Based on the above information, the organization needs to calculate at the end of each month:

1) the amount of expenses for voluntary insurance taken into account for tax purposes in a given reporting (tax) period, and the amount of expenses to be carried forward to the next tax period, in accordance with clause 6 of Art. 272 Tax Code of the Russian Federation;
2) the amount of expenses for voluntary insurance accepted for tax purposes in a given reporting (tax) period, in accordance with the standards established by clause 16 of Art. 255 NKRF.

Expenses for voluntary insurance of employees are reflected on line 030 of the above-mentioned declaration as part of labor costs related to indirect expenses of the current period.

Depreciation

Indirect costs may include depreciation charges on fixed assets and intangible assets that are not directly involved in the production process, if this is mentioned in the accounting policy. In this regard, it is necessary to note that before the entry into force of Federal Law No. 58-FZ, depreciation charges for intangible assets were taken into account in full as part of indirect costs, regardless of their connection with the production process. According to Art. 318 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation (as amended by Federal Law No. 58-FZ), as mentioned earlier, the issue of including (or not including) one or another type of expense in the group of direct expenses is decided by the taxpayer independently. At the same time, according to the author, those expenses that are directly related to the products being manufactured make economic and practical sense to be taken into account for profit tax purposes as part of the cost of the product, regardless of the characteristics of the expenses incurred. Therefore, regarding depreciation deductions as part of indirect expenses, in the general case it would be correct to say that these include that part of them that is not included in the direct expenses of this group.

In this case, it is necessary to strictly adhere to the rules for classifying the above-mentioned objects and assets as depreciable property. Let us remind you that according to Art. 256 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, depreciable property for profit tax purposes is property, results of intellectual activity and other objects of intellectual property that are owned by the taxpayer (unless otherwise provided for in Chapter 25 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), used by him to generate income and the cost of which is repaid by depreciation charges. Depreciable property is property with a useful life of more than 12 months and an original cost of more than 10,000 rubles.

The amounts of accrued depreciation related to indirect expenses of the current reporting (tax) period are reflected on line 040 of Appendix No. 2 to sheet 02 of the income tax return.

other expenses

Other expenses associated with production and sales, named in Articles 260-264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, as part of indirect expenses form a large group of expenses of the current period, which can be taken into account both in the full amount of costs incurred and in the amount normalized by law.

Below is a list of normalized other expenses.

The group of expenses accepted for tax purposes within the limits of the norms includes:

Expenses for the repair of fixed assets (the size of the repair fund is normalized);
- expenses for the development of natural resources (expenses incurred through budget financing are not taken into account);
- expenses for scientific research and (or) development (R&D) (the amount of expenses that did not produce positive results is normalized);
- property insurance costs;
- the amount of paid allowances within the limits established in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation;
- expenses for compensation for the use of personal cars and motorcycles for business trips;
- daily allowance or field allowance;
- expenses for food rations for crews of sea, river and aircraft;
- payment to a public and (or) private notary for notarization;
- entertainment expenses associated with the official reception and service of representatives of other organizations participating in negotiations in order to establish and maintain cooperation;
- expenses for the acquisition (production) of prizes awarded to the winners of drawings of such prizes during mass advertising campaigns;
- costs of replacing defective copies of periodicals in packages that have lost their marketable appearance during transportation and (or) sale and missing copies of periodicals;
- losses in the form of the cost of defective media and book products that have lost their marketable appearance, as well as those not sold within the deadlines (morally obsolete), written off by taxpayers engaged in the production and release of media products and book products (indicated in the last two points, expenses in accordance with clause 21 of Article 250 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation in full are included in the non-operating income of the organization);
- expenses for the maintenance of rotational and temporary camps, including all housing, communal and social facilities, subsidiary farms and other similar services, in organizations operating on a rotational basis or working in field (expedition) conditions.

With regard to those types of indirect expenses that are taken into account for tax purposes within the established standards, it seems advisable to maintain personal registers.

Thus, in separate tax accounting registers, it is necessary to organize the accounting of normalized other expenses taken into account for tax purposes over a number of years (carried forward to the future).

We are talking about the following types of expenses:

Expenses for repairs of fixed assets;
- expenses for the development of natural resources;
- expenses for scientific research and development (R&D);
- property insurance costs.

The procedure for maintaining tax accounting for these expenses should provide information on the total amount of expenses incurred, the timing of their write-off, as well as the amount of expenses accepted for tax purposes in a given reporting (tax) period, and the amount of expenses transferred to future periods.

The methodology for tax accounting of expenses for the repair of fixed assets is set out in Art. 260 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

If an organization incurs expenses for the development of natural resources, when organizing tax accounting for such expenses, one should be guided by the provisions of Art. Art. 261 and 325 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

The procedure for recognizing expenses for scientific research and development (R&D) is described in Art. 262 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, according to which the taxpayer’s expenses for scientific research and (or) development work that produce a positive result are included by the taxpayer in other expenses for three years, provided that the said research and development is used in production and (or) in the sale of goods (performance of work, provision of services) from the 1st day of the month following the month in which such studies were completed. The same expenses, which did not produce a positive result, are also subject to inclusion in other expenses evenly over three years in an amount not exceeding 70 percent of the actual expenses incurred, in the manner prescribed by this paragraph.

If an organization incurs expenses for property insurance (Article 263 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), then when maintaining tax records of such expenses, the provisions of clause 6 of Art. 272 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which oblige them to be taken into account for tax purposes in the reporting (tax) periods to which they relate.

Accordingly, when concluding insurance contracts for a period of more than one tax period, providing for the payment of an insurance premium in a one-time payment, the organization should organize separate tax accounting (in separate registers) for insurance costs.

The remaining normalized expenses, which include:

Expenses for business trips in terms of daily allowance and (or) field allowance (clause 12, clause 1, article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
- expenses for compensation for the use of personal cars for business trips (clause 11, clause 1, article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
- entertainment expenses (clause 2 of article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
- expenses for other types of advertising not mentioned in paragraph. 2-4p. 4st. 264 NKRF;
- other standardized expenses must also be taken into account in separate tax registers, but their accounting must be kept only during one tax period, since the balances of the above expenses that were not accepted for tax purposes of the current tax period are not carried over to the next reporting period.

The data from the above registers on the amounts of standardized expenses in terms of those attributable to the reduction of income of the current period is collected at the end of this period into a consolidated register for accounting for other expenses, which also collects data on all other (not related to the standardized) expenses classified as other by tax legislation. Moreover, this data can also be pre-collected in separate registers, or directly entered into the consolidated register of other expenses.

In this register, on an accrual basis from the beginning of the year, the total data for each group of indirect expenses is reflected, the disclosure of information on which is required to fill out Appendix No. 2 of the income tax return sheet, according to which other expenses are reflected in the total amount on line 060, and line 070 - 100 decipher some items of these expenses.

Methods for allocating indirect costs

In modern economic conditions in commercial organizations, the issues of distribution of indirect costs between the types of products (works, services) they produce are of particular relevance. They are, as a rule, distributed first by types (areas) of activity, and then (within each type of activity) - by type of product.

The accuracy of determining costs for individual technological lines and types of products depends on how rationally they are distributed. The latter, in turn, is of great importance for the enterprise’s policy in the field of pricing and its structural policy (formation of the range of production and sales of products).

There are three main methods for allocating indirect costs between production units:

– direct cost distribution method;
– step-by-step (sequential) method of cost distribution;
– method of mutual distribution of costs (two-way).

The method of direct distribution of indirect costs is the simplest: costs for each service department are allocated to production departments directly, bypassing other service departments. It is used in cases where non-production responsibility centers do not provide services to each other.

The advantage of this method is its simplicity and low labor intensity. Its main drawback is that it leads to serious distortions in determining the real cost of various types of products.

For example, an enterprise produces two types of products - A and B. In this case, product A is produced on the basis of machine technology, and product B is produced by manual labor. Then, when applying the distribution base “Direct labor costs”, the cost of the first type of product will be underestimated, the second - overestimated, and when using the distribution base “Equipment operating hours” - vice versa.

The step-by-step method of allocating production overhead costs is used in cases where non-production departments provide services to each other unilaterally. For example, the services of a repair shop are unilaterally consumed by the finished product warehouse and the main production workshop, and the administration services are consumed by the main workshop, the finished product warehouse and the repair shops.

The process of distributing non-production costs between production units is carried out in stages:

1 Step. Determination of costs by department. All department costs are taken into account.
Step 2 Definition of the basic unit, i.e. a unit of volume of services provided by an auxiliary unit, using which one can easily determine the consumption of these services by other units. For example, for a repair shop - this is the amount of time for repairs, for a transport workshop - vehicle mileage (km), warehouse space - area (m2), etc.
3 Step. Cost Allocation. Performed based on the selected distribution base. The general order of distribution is from non-production divisions to production ones. As a result of the distribution, all costs of non-production departments must be assigned to production cost centers. Once the costs of one auxiliary unit have been allocated, it is no longer taken into account and is subsequently excluded from the step-by-step allocation process, i.e. the costs of other auxiliary departments are not allocated to its account.

The step-by-step method for allocating production indirect costs is more labor-intensive, but compared to the previous method it gives a more accurate picture of the cost of individual types of products.

The method of mutual distribution of costs is called bilateral, which reflects the essence of production relations between responsibility centers. It is used in cases where intra-company services are exchanged between non-production departments. However, it can be applied manually without using a software product only if there are two non-production departments.

Indirect production costs

Indirect costs. This includes all costs that cannot be attributed to the first and second groups. Indirect costs are a set of costs associated with production that cannot (or are not economically feasible) be attributed directly to specific types of products. In the domestic economic literature they are also called overhead costs.

Indirect costs are divided into two groups:

General production (production) expenses are general shop expenses for organizing, maintaining and managing production. In accounting, information about them is accumulated on account 25 “General production expenses”;
General business (non-production) expenses are incurred for the purpose of production management. They are not directly related to the production activities of the organization and are recorded on balance sheet account 26 “General business expenses”.

Classification of indirect (overhead) costs:

Indirect (overhead) costs
General production(production)		General economic(non-production)
Expenses for maintenance and operation of equipment	General shop management costs
Depreciation of equipment and vehicles Routine maintenance and repair of equipment Energy costs for equipment Services of auxiliary production for maintenance of equipment and workplaces Wages and social contributions for workers servicing equipment Expenses for in-plant transportation of materials, semi-finished products, finished products Other costs associated with the use of equipment	Costs associated with preparation and organization of production Depreciation of buildings, structures, production equipment Costs of ensuring normal working conditions Costs of career guidance and training	Administrative and management expenses Technical management costs Production management expenses Costs for managing supply and procurement activities; to manage financial and sales activities Labor costs: recruitment, selection, training of managers, retraining and advanced training Payment for services provided by external organizations Mandatory fees, taxes, payments and deductions in accordance with the procedure established by law

A distinctive feature of general operating expenses is that they remain constant within the scale base. They can be changed by management decisions, and the degree of their coverage - by sales volume.

In management accounting, a scale base is understood as a certain interval of production (sales) volume in which costs behave in a certain way and have a clearly defined trend. In some industries producing homogeneous products, for example in the energy, coal, and oil industries, all costs will be direct. At manufacturing enterprises (in mechanical engineering, light industry, food industry, etc.), indirect costs are very significant. Thus, the division of costs into direct and indirect depends on the technological features of production.

Basic and overhead costs. According to their purpose, costs are divided into basic and enterprise management costs. The latter are called overhead costs.

Basic expenses include all types of resources (labor items in the form of raw materials, basic materials, purchased semi-finished products; depreciation of fixed production assets; wages of main production workers with accruals for it, etc.), the consumption of which is associated with the production of products (rendering services). In any enterprise they constitute the most important part of costs.

Overhead costs are caused by management functions, which are different in nature, purpose and role from production functions. These expenses, as a rule, are associated with the organization of the enterprise’s activities and its management. In accordance with the method of allocating costs to a medium (costing object), overhead costs are indirect.

Production and non-production (periodic costs, or period costs). In accordance with International Accounting Standards, for the measurement of inventories of goods manufactured, only production costs should be included in the cost of production.

Therefore, in management accounting, costs are classified into:

Included in the cost of production (production);
non-production (costs of the reporting period, or periodic costs).

Costs included in the cost of production (manufacturing) are materialized costs and therefore can be inventoried.

They consist of three elements:

Direct material costs;
direct labor costs;
general production costs.

Production costs are embodied in inventories of materials, in the volume of work in progress and in the balance of finished products (goods) in the enterprise's warehouse. In management accounting, they are often called inventory-intensive, since they are distributed between current expenses involved in calculating profits and inventories. The costs of their formation are considered incoming; they are assets of the company that will bring benefits in future reporting periods.

Indirect cost distribution base

From the point of view of accounting and formation of product costs, costs are not the same not only in their composition, but also in their significance in the products manufactured, work and services performed.

Some costs are directly related to the manufacture and release of products (costs of raw materials, wages, etc.), others - to the management and maintenance of production (costs of maintaining the management apparatus, providing the production process with the necessary resources, maintaining the means of production in working condition, etc.), and still others, not being directly related to production, are still included in production costs (social needs, etc.).

Since part of the production costs is directly included in the cost of specific types of finished products, and the other part, in connection with the production of several types of products, is indirectly included, the method of including costs in the cost of products (works, services) is of particular importance.

Direct costs are the costs of producing a specific type of product (work, service).

Therefore, they can be attributed to the accounting object at the time of their commission or accrual directly:

They are usually formed during the production/distribution process;
refusal to release products eliminates these costs.

Indirect costs are associated with the release of several types of products, industries and activities of the enterprise.

Therefore, they are first accumulated and then included with the cost of specific products (works, services) using special distribution calculations:

They are usually formed outside the production/distribution process;
refusal of a particular type of product does not eliminate these costs.

Whether costs are classified as direct or indirect depends on what the costs are.

At the same enterprise under the same conditions, depending on the accounting policy, products can be both profitable and costly. Therefore, the main issue is choosing the correct cost allocation criterion.

First of all, the base for the distribution of indirect costs must be economically justified, and the choice of the base for the distribution of indirect costs is determined by the characteristics of the organization, production technology and the functional specifics of the entire enterprise.

Do not forget that building the entire system of accounting and cost distribution may require significant labor and financial costs. Therefore, the purpose of cost distribution is of no small importance: to determine the full cost within the framework of mandatory accounting and preparation of tax reporting, or to analyze the profitability of each type of product within the framework of internal accounting and make effective management decisions in the field of pricing and assortment policy.

As a rule, the most frequently used bases for the distribution of indirect costs, which are recommended by various industry guidelines for planning, accounting and calculating the cost of products (works, services). This list is limited (mainly the wages of production workers or direct material costs), and the methodology provides for the distribution of all indirect costs on a single basis, which significantly simplifies the cost calculation process, makes it simple and labor-intensive, but leads to inaccurate calculation of the cost of a particular type of product.

This can be illustrated by the following example.

Example: The enterprise produces two types of products. The production of one type of product is fully automated, while the production of another type of product is carried out with partial use of manual labor. Thus, using the equipment operating time as a basis for distributing indirect costs will underestimate the cost of the second type of product. At the same time, with identical taxation of both types of products, the total amount of calculated taxes will not change.

In the case of maintaining management accounting for the purposes of internal analysis and control, carrying out an effective assortment and pricing policy, the enterprise can independently form internal accounting standards, that is, use a wider range of indirect cost distribution bases. Given the feasibility of this approach and the possibility of deep automation of cost accounting and planning processes, each significant indirect cost can have its own distribution base.

Further consideration of the choice and options for distribution bases of indirect costs will be focused on the requirements of internal accounting.

The distribution of indirect costs can occur in several stages.

Example:

1. Distribution of indirect general business expenses between types of activities;
2. Distribution of indirect costs for general economic and general production purposes within each type of activity by type of production;
3. Distribution of indirect costs of general economic, general production purposes and indirect costs of specific production within each production by type of product.

At each stage of distribution of indirect costs there is its own accounting object. At the first stage of distribution of indirect costs, the object of accounting is the type of activity, at the second stage - the type of production, and at the third - the type of product.

In addition, the accounting object can be a process, contract, project, etc. The determination of what should be the object of accounting is carried out by the enterprise itself based on the principle of expediency (correlating the costs associated with obtaining the result with its usefulness) and the capabilities of the automated accounting system.

In turn, general and general production costs can be formed by cost centers (cost centers) or financial responsibility centers (FRC). When using this method, expenses are taken into account at the level of functional divisions, with the opening of separate sub-accounts for each of them in the enterprise's accounting. To simplify calculations, each functional unit (cost center) can have a common distribution base for all its costs on accounting objects.

Example: the basis for distribution of warehouse costs can be the cubic footage of storage of a unit of product, and for the sales service - the number of contracts for the shipment of products, etc.

The main criterion for choosing a distribution base is the combination and weight of various resources, and therefore the costs of these resources, in the accounting object at each stage of cost distribution (per type of activity, per type of product, etc.).

For example, in a multi-industry enterprise, one or another type of expense can be selected as the basis for the distribution of general business costs between types of activities if it satisfies the following conditions:

This type of expense is present in the cost structure of each type of activity, that is, the cost is homogeneous in nature for each type of activity;
for each type of activity this type of expense is direct;
For each type of activity, this type of expense is significant in economic terms.

Let's consider the main resources used in the production of products and the corresponding distribution bases:

Material working capital (raw materials, materials) - if production is material-intensive, then possible distribution bases are actual direct costs of raw materials and supplies, planned (standard) direct costs of raw materials;
fixed assets - if production is capital-intensive, then possible distribution bases are depreciation charges, planned or actual operating hours of equipment, residual value of fixed assets;
labor resources - if production is labor-intensive, then possible distribution bases are actual labor costs, the number of personnel involved in the technological process.

If in the accounting object under consideration it is difficult to identify a cost that satisfies all three of the above conditions, then additional distribution bases can be used. They are indicators that are calculated in the process of economic activity of the enterprise: output volume, sales volume, cost of goods sold, production cost, cost of purchasing raw materials and materials, marginal income, average number of personnel, etc.

Example: The basis for the distribution of enterprise management costs between production activities and wholesale trade can be the revenue from each type of activity (for trading activities - gross income) or the average number of personnel involved in each type of activity.

In addition, it is advisable to determine the choice of one or another additional distribution base in accordance with the following criteria:

The presence of a cause-and-effect relationship between the distribution base and the cost or the receipt of “benefit” (utility) from the cost incurred (the costs of the personnel management department are distributed in proportion to the average number of personnel; in proportion to the vacancies filled during the reporting period, etc.);
compliance of the selected distribution base with normal working conditions (for example, choosing the number of personnel indicator as the distribution base may be unjustified if there is a temporary excess of employees in a particular department);
compliance with the principle of “endurance” or “carrying capacity” (if a product type brings in a larger amount of revenue than other products, then it may incur large indirect costs; if a new type of product is introduced to the market, then it can be “exempt” from some types of indirect costs for the development of new production).

One more note. Cost indicators are characterized by the disadvantage that they change over time, since they are dependent on the price or method of valuation, therefore, both cost indicators and quantitative indicators can be used as bases for the distribution of indirect costs, i.e. expressed in natural (technical) quantities.

In conclusion, I would like to note that the correct choice of indirect cost distribution methodology can be made on the basis of a detailed analysis of the types and structure of costs, and the most reasonable choice of the indirect cost distribution base allows you to more accurately calculate the cost of production, obtain reliable information about the results of each type of activity or each type production.

Indirect Cost Accounts

Direct costs are those costs that can be attributed entirely to the product or service.

These include:

Cost of raw materials and supplies used in the production and sale of goods and services;
wages of workers (piecework) directly involved in the production of goods;
other direct costs (all costs that are in one way or another directly related to the product).

Indirect (overhead) costs are costs that are not directly related to a particular product, but relate to the company as a whole.

These include:

Expenses for maintaining the administrative apparatus;
rent;
depreciation;
interest on loan, etc.

The criterion for dividing costs into fixed and variable is their dependence on production volume.

Accounting does not involve dividing costs into direct and indirect; this is only a requirement of Chapter 25 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

In the Enterprise Accounting version 3.0 configuration, accounting and tax data are stored with the same detail on one chart of accounts - the Chart of Accounts. Therefore, the division of expenses in tax accounting into direct and indirect is carried out using the table of rules of the information register Methods for determining direct production expenses in NU.

There are three required information in this table:

Year of validity;
Organization;
Type of expenses NU (requisites of the directory Items of expenses).

In the table itself, you can specify the conditions under which the transaction amount will be classified as direct expenses.

Thus, the organization, in its accounting policies for accounting purposes, independently determines which expenses are considered direct. If it is known in advance that costs for a certain division are classified as direct expenses, and for other divisions as indirect, then when filling out the register, cost accounts can be omitted. If in the specified division there are also indirect expenses, but direct and indirect are reflected in different cost accounts, then you need to clarify the cost account of direct expenses. For example, in production workshop No. 1 we indicate that expenses on account 20.01 are considered direct.

If you do not fill out or detail anything in the table of rules, the greater the number of transactions that will fall under this rule; if you indicate your divisions, cost account, or product group for one type of expense, then the transactions will completely fall under the specified rule.

Direct expenses: accounting entries

In accounting, direct expenses of production organizations are reflected in the debit of accounts 20 “Main production” and 23 “Auxiliary production”:

DEBIT 20 (23) CREDIT 02, 04, 05, 10, 60, 68, 69, 70

Direct production costs are written off.

Direct expenses also include losses from marriage. The write-off of the defective amount to production costs is reflected as follows:

DEBIT 20 CREDIT 28

Losses from defects were written off for main production.

Indirect costs: accounting entries

To reflect indirect expenses in organizations, accounts 25 are used

“General production expenses”, 26 “General operating expenses” and 44 “Selling expenses”.

General production expenses The debit of account 25 accumulates such indirect expenses as:

Expenses for the maintenance and operation of machinery and equipment;
depreciation charges and costs for repairs of fixed assets and other property used in production;
costs for heating, lighting and maintenance of premises;
rent for premises, as well as for machinery and equipment used in production;
remuneration of workers engaged in production maintenance.

This is reflected in accounting as follows:

DEBIT 25 CREDIT 02, 04, 05, 10, 60, 69, 70

Expenses for servicing main and auxiliary production facilities have been accrued.

At the end of the month, upon distribution, overhead costs are written off:

In the debit of account 20 - in terms of costs included in the cost of production of the main production;
in the debit of account 23 - in terms of costs related to the cost of production of auxiliary production.

Let us recall that the basis for the distribution of such expenses (enshrined in the accounting policy) can be: the salary of production workers producing a specific type of product; the cost of raw materials supplied for the production of products of this type; the amount of direct costs related to products of this type.

General running costs. Account 26 collects the following indirect expenses:

Administrative and management expenses;
expenses for maintaining general business personnel;
depreciation charges and expenses for repairs of fixed assets for management and general economic purposes;
rent for general business premises;
expenses for payment of information, auditing, consulting services.

This is reflected as follows:

DEBIT 26 CREDIT 02, 04, 05, 10, 60, 68, 69, 70, 76

General business expenses have been accrued.

The organization also establishes the procedure for writing off general business expenses independently and enshrines it in its accounting policies. There are two ways to write off such expenses.

In the first case, they are written off to the main production. That is, they are distributed by type of product (work, service) and are included in their cost as well as general production expenses. As a result, the debit of account 20 reflects the full production cost of products (works, services).

In the second case, the organization can attribute the entire amount of general business expenses incurred during the reporting period to products sold (to account 90). This is stated in paragraph 9 of PBU 10/99. Then account 20 reflects the reduced cost of production.

Full production cost consists of partial production cost and general business expenses.

The method of writing off general business expenses affects the financial result of the organization. If general business expenses are distributed between sold and unsold products, then not all general business expenses incurred are written off, but only those that are included in the cost of goods sold. When using the second method, general business expenses are written off entirely to products sold.

VAT on indirect expenses

So, VAT is a value added tax paid by the seller of goods and services on that part of the cost that he adds to the cost of these goods before the sale stage.

At the same time, the seller includes VAT in the cost of the goods and services he provides and is himself a VAT payer for the goods and services he purchases during production. Thus, the amount of tax paid by the seller is the difference between the amount of tax received by the seller from the buyer and the amount of tax paid to suppliers.

In the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, Chapter 21 is devoted to VAT.

VAT is paid (Article 143 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation):

Organizations;
individual entrepreneurs;
persons recognized as VAT taxpayers in connection with the movement of goods across the customs border of the Russian Federation.

In accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. 168 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, when selling goods (work, services), transferring property rights, the taxpayer (tax agent specified in paragraphs 4 and 5 of Article 161 of the Tax Code) is obliged to present, in addition to the price (tariff) of the goods (work, services) being sold, transferred property rights payment to the buyer of these goods (works, services), property rights, the corresponding amount of tax. Those. the amount of VAT is actually included in the final price of goods (work, services) presented to buyers.

The following operations are recognized as the object of taxation (clause 1 of Article 146 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation):

1. sale of goods (work, services) on the territory of the Russian Federation, including the sale of collateral and transfer of goods (results of work performed, provision of services) under an agreement to provide compensation or novation, as well as transfer of property rights. At the same time, the transfer of ownership of goods, the results of work performed, and the provision of services free of charge is recognized as the sale of goods (work, services);
2. transfer of goods on the territory of the Russian Federation (performance of work, provision of services) for one’s own needs, expenses for which are not accepted for deduction (including through depreciation charges) when calculating corporate income tax;
3. carrying out construction and installation work for own consumption;
4. importation of goods into the customs territory of the Russian Federation.

An organization can receive an exemption from fulfilling the duties of a taxpayer and not be a VAT payer (the procedure for receiving benefits is established by Article 145 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). In this case, the organization does not have the obligation to prepare invoices, maintain a purchase book, a sales book and submit a tax return.

In configuration 1C: Accounting 8, for accounting for VAT on acquired values, account 19 “VAT on acquired values” is presented, for accrued VAT – 68.02 “Value Added Tax”, for accounting for VAT on advances and preliminary payments – account 76.AB “VAT on advances and prepayments" and accounting account 76.VA "VAT on advances and prepayments issued" reflects transactions on advances to suppliers.

So, before you start accounting for VAT, you need to check the organization’s accounting policy settings. To do this, go to the “Enterprise/Accounting Policies/Accounting Policies of Organizations” menu on the “VAT” tab and check the correctness of the settings: does the enterprise carry out sales at a rate of 0% or without VAT, is it necessary to charge VAT on shipment without transfer of ownership, registration procedure invoices for advance payments, etc.

In the 1C: Accounting 8 program, the Purchase Book and Sales Book are filled out automatically, but only after performing certain regulatory procedures at the end of the month. The list of VAT regulatory documents can be viewed through the menu item “Operations/Documents/VAT regulatory documents”.

These documents analyze data from registers and generate the corresponding movements and postings.

Let’s take a closer look at the document “Distribution of VAT on indirect expenses”.

The need to distribute VAT on indirect expenses arises in two cases:

If the organization applies UTII;
- if the organization carries out sales at the rate Without VAT or at the rate of 0%.

The document “Distribution of VAT on indirect expenses” must be completed and posted at the end of the month. The document is intended for the distribution of input VAT on values ​​written off as expenses, for transactions either subject to VAT, or not subject to VAT, or taxed at a rate of 0%.

The document consists of 3 tabs “Revenue from sales”, “Indirect expenses” and “VAT write-off accounts”.

On the “Sales Revenue” tab, the amounts of sales revenue for the period are indicated at various VAT rates to determine the proportion that will be used for the distribution of VAT (in accordance with Article 170 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Revenue amounts can be filled in automatically using the “Calculate” button.

In the part “Article for including VAT in activity costs” you need to indicate:

Not subject to VAT (not UTII), if the organization carries out sales that are not subject to VAT and not related to UTII;
not subject to VAT (UTII), if the organization carries out sales subject to UTII.

On the “Indirect expenses” tab, data on values ​​written off as expenses is indicated. The list of values ​​can be filled out automatically by clicking the “Fill/Fill in according to VAT register data” button and using the “Distribute” button, incoming VAT amounts are distributed to indirect expenses.

The tab contains two tabular parts. The upper part displays general information about the valuables: type of value, invoice, etc. and the amount excluding VAT and VAT. In the lower tabular part, information about the cost accounts to which the values ​​are written off is filled in. This data corresponds to the line selected in the upper tabular part and is used for cases when it is necessary to reflect the inclusion of VAT in the cost of activities that are not subject to VAT or subject to UTII.

When filling out the upper tabular part in the “Distribution” column. taking into account UTII revenue" the checkbox is checked if the assets were written off using a cost item intended to account for costs for different types of activities; in this case, when distributed, the VAT amount will be attributed to activities subject to VAT at regular rates, for activities subject to VAT at rate 0 %, and for activities subject to UTII (if a cost item is indicated that is intended to account for costs of activities subject to UTII, then VAT is not distributed on such expenses). If the box is not checked, then the distribution will not take into account activities subject to UTII.

In the column “VAT is included in the cost”, a checkbox is checked if, before distribution, VAT on the written-off value was included in the cost, in this case, when posting the document, the exclusion of VAT from the cost may be reflected if part of the expenses relates to activities taxed at regular VAT rates or at a rate of 0%.

The “VAT write-off account” tab indicates the procedure for writing off VAT in the case when expenses relate to activities not subject to VAT or subject to UTII, and the VAT amount was previously accepted for deduction:

If it is necessary to write off VAT to the cost accounts indicated in the lower table part on the “Indirect expenses” tab, then the “Write off VAT as well as valuables” flag is set.
If it is necessary to write off VAT to another account and analytics, then the “Write off VAT differently than values” flag is set. In this case, it will be possible to select an account and analytics, according to which the VAT write-off will be reflected.

Indirect expenses in tax accounting

To determine the tax base for income tax, the taxpayer should reduce the income received by the organization by the amount of expenses incurred. In this case, part of the expenses incurred is not included in the expenses of the current period, but is distributed among the balances of work in progress, finished products in the warehouse and goods shipped but not sold. Such expenses are defined by tax legislation as direct.

Direct and indirect costs

Analyzing the composition of costs used in the production of products (providing services, performing work), it can be noted that some costs can be attributed directly to the production of a specific type of product, product (performing a certain type of work, providing a specific service), while others cannot . Costs of the first type are called direct, and of the second - indirect.

In the generally accepted understanding (without reference to tax legislation), direct costs include raw materials from which a certain type of product is directly manufactured, as well as those expenses of organizations that can be clearly linked to any type of product, work or service.

However, most enterprises also incur expenses that cannot be directly correlated with the production of a specific type of product or the implementation of a certain type of work or service. For example, if an enterprise produces a large assortment of products, then the cost of electricity and heat consumed by the enterprise as a whole over a certain period of time (provided that each workshop does not have its own sources of appropriate energy) is impossible (and incorrect) to include in production costs only one type of product, since it was used to produce all products. Therefore, such costs are distributed between types of products (or work performed, services provided) in proportion to the established base in order to determine the full production cost of the product. Such costs are called indirect.

The given classification of costs of enterprises and organizations and the procedure for distributing indirect costs between costing items are provided for by industry recommendations for calculating costs and are used in accounting.

The 25th chapter of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, introduced for the purpose of calculating income tax, established the so-called “tax” concept of direct and indirect expenses (Article 318 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), shown in Table 1. Moreover, for each type of expense a different accounting procedure is provided for tax purposes.

Composition of direct and indirect expenses in tax accounting:

No.	expenditures	Composition of expenses
Direct expenses
	Material costs provided for in paragraphs. 1 and 4 paragraphs 1 art. 254 Tax Code of the Russian Federation	Expenses for the acquisition of raw materials and (or) materials used in the production of goods (performance of work, provision of services) and (or) forming their basis or being a necessary component in the production of goods (performance of work, provision of services); Expenses for the purchase of components undergoing installation and (or) semi-finished products undergoing additional processing from the taxpayer
	Labor costs (including UST)	Expenses for remuneration of personnel involved in the process of production of goods, performance of work, provision of services; Amounts of the single social tax accrued on the specified amounts of labor costs
	Depreciation of fixed assets	Amounts of accrued depreciation on fixed assets used in the production of goods, works, services
Indirect costs
	Other production and sales costs not mentioned above	all other amounts of expenses incurred by the taxpayer during the reporting (tax) period (except for non-operating expenses)

In tax accounting, the legislator has defined different procedures for allocating expenses to reduce income depending on their nature of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation (clause 2 of Article 318 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation):

The amount of indirect costs for production and sales incurred in the reporting (tax) period is fully attributed to the decrease in income from production and sales of this period;
- the amount of direct expenses for production and sales incurred in the reporting (tax) period does not relate to the expenses of the current period in full, but only in part related to the products (works, services) sold in a given period, that is, with the exception of the amounts of direct expenses , distributed among the balances of work in progress, finished products in the warehouse and products shipped but not sold in the reporting (tax) period.

Obviously, the opportunity provided by the Tax Code to write off indirect expenses in full in the current reporting (tax) period is beneficial to taxpayers, since this approach will lead to a decrease in taxable profit compared to the procedure in force when determining it. Particular benefits will be received, for example, by those enterprises that widely use the work and services of third-party organizations in their activities (for example, construction organizations that engage contractors, etc.).

It should be noted that production and sales costs are divided into direct and indirect only if the taxpayer uses the accrual method when calculating income tax. This directly follows from the text of Article 318 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Types of indirect costs

According to the method of inclusion in the cost price, costs are divided into direct and indirect.

Direct costs are associated with the production of a certain type of product and can be directly and directly attributed to its cost: raw materials and basic materials, the basic salary of production workers, losses from defects and some others.

Indirect costs cannot be attributed directly to the cost of individual types of products and are distributed indirectly (conditionally): general production and general business expenses, part of selling expenses and some others. The division of costs into direct and indirect depends on industry characteristics, production organization, and the adopted method for calculating product costs. For example, in the coal industry, where only one type of product is produced, all costs are direct.

Often, basic costs are identified with direct costs, and overhead costs with indirect costs. Overhead costs are actually allocated between costing and costing objects in an indirect way. At the same time, a significant part of the main expenses is also distributed among the relevant objects in an indirect way: the bulk of auxiliary materials, contributions for social needs, etc. In a number of industries, even raw materials and basic materials are distributed among accounting and costing objects in an indirect way - in proportion to the consumption rates of raw materials and materials , prescription standards, etc.

Among indirect expenses, it is customary to distinguish general production and general business expenses. These also include commercial expenses (selling expenses).

General production expenses are the costs of servicing the main and auxiliary production of an organization.

In particular, this includes the following costs:

On the maintenance and operation of machinery and equipment;
- depreciation charges and costs for repairs of fixed assets and other property used in production;
- expenses for insurance of the specified property;
- costs for heating, lighting and maintenance of premises;
- rent for premises, machinery, equipment, etc., used in production;
- remuneration of workers engaged in production maintenance;
- other expenses similar in purpose.

General expenses are expenses for management needs not directly related to the production process.

In particular, these are the following expenses:

Administrative and management expenses;
- maintenance of general business personnel not related to the production process;
- depreciation and expenses for repairs of fixed assets for management and general economic purposes;
- rent for general purpose premises;
- costs of paying for information, auditing, consulting, etc. services; other administrative expenses similar in purpose.

Based on participation in the production process, production and non-production costs (period expenses) are distinguished.

Production costs are directly related to the production of products, performance of work and provision of services, and they are included in their cost. Production costs include material costs, labor costs, contributions to the unified social tax, losses from defects, general production costs and other production costs.

Non-production costs (period expenses) are not directly related to the production of products, performance of work and provision of services and are not included in production costs. They are written off to reduce profits from the sale of products (to account 90 “Sales”). Expenses of the period include expenses for selling products (selling expenses).

A significant portion of selling expenses is directly attributable to the cost of products sold (packaging and container materials, transportation costs, etc.). Part of the selling costs is distributed among the types of products sold indirectly - in proportion to production costs, cost of products sold, etc.

General business expenses can be included in the production cost of products (works, services) or be classified as expenses of the period, depending on the procedure for their write-off adopted in the organization. If the accounting policy provides for the calculation of the full production cost of products, then general business expenses are written off to the production cost accounts, i.e. included in production costs. When calculating the partial production cost of products, general business expenses are classified as expenses of the period and written off to account 90 “Sales”.

Thus, the division of expenses into production and non-production does not entirely coincide with the division of expenses into direct and indirect.

Indirect expenses of the organization

In tax accounting, an organization’s costs for production and sales are divided into two groups:

Direct expenses;
indirect costs.

Organizations that are not classified as trading must allocate costs between direct and indirect expenses only if they calculate income tax on an accrual basis. Organizations using the cash method are not required to distribute expenses among these groups.

Depending on which group of expenses certain expenses belong to, the moment of their recognition in the tax base differs. Write off indirect expenses in full in the period to which they relate. Direct costs must be allocated. That part of them that relates to the balance of work in progress or unsold goods will not increase the organization’s current expenses.

Trade organizations distribute costs into direct and indirect expenses, regardless of the method of calculating income tax (accrual method or cash method).

Direct costs include:

The cost of purchasing goods sold during the reporting (tax period);
costs for delivery of goods to the buyer's warehouse (if these costs are not included in the price of goods).

Direct expenses are taken into account when calculating income tax as goods are sold. All other expenses (except non-operating expenses) are classified as indirect. Indirect expenses reduce revenue from sales of the current month.

The procedure for dividing costs into direct and indirect costs largely depends on what activities the organization is engaged in:

Production of products, performance of work;
provision of services;
trade.

Let's talk about each of these types of activities in more detail.

Indirect costs of production organizations

Indirect costs, what applies to them in manufacturing organizations? For production organizations, an approximate list of direct costs is established by paragraph 1 of Article 318 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

These include:

Material costs. These are the costs of purchasing: raw materials and supplies used to produce products (perform work); components to be installed; semi-finished products requiring additional processing;
expenses for remuneration of employees involved in the production of products (performance of work), as well as contributions accrued on these payments for compulsory pension (social, medical) insurance and insurance against accidents and occupational diseases;
depreciation charges for fixed assets used in the production of products (performance of work).

The remaining costs (except for non-operating costs) are indirect costs.

The organization must independently establish an exact list of direct costs associated with production and sales. Develop such a list and consolidate it in your accounting policies for tax purposes. The formation of a list of direct costs must be economically justified. Costs must be distributed taking into account the characteristics of the technological process and industry specifics. At the same time, only those expenses that cannot be classified as direct for objective reasons can be recognized as indirect. For example, the costs of raw materials and materials that are included in the unit cost of production are always direct and cannot be classified as indirect costs. Similar explanations are contained in the letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia No. KE-4-3/2952. The validity of this conclusion is confirmed by arbitration practice (see, for example, the determination of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation No. VAS-5306/10).

When determining the list of direct expenses for tax accounting, an organization can use a similar list that it uses in accounting.

Costs that relate to direct expenses are included in the tax base as products are sold (work is performed), in the cost of which they are taken into account. Indirect costs are included in the costs of the period in which they are accrued.

Indirect costs of organizations providing services

Organizations that provide services can distribute costs into direct and indirect in the same order as production ones. They should also create a list of direct expenses and consolidate it in their accounting policies. The remaining costs are indirect costs. However, there is a significant difference between the rules for recognizing expenses for manufacturing organizations and for organizations that specialize in providing services.

A service is an activity whose results do not have material expression and are sold and consumed in the process of its implementation. In this regard, organizations providing services (for example, consulting companies) are not required to distribute direct costs between the costs of the current tax (reporting) period and the cost of services not accepted by customers at the end of this period (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia No. 03-03-06/ 1/348). They have the right to recognize all costs incurred (both direct and indirect costs) in the current tax (reporting) period. In this case, such a procedure for accounting for direct costs must be established in the accounting policy.

Indirect costs of trade organizations

Indirect costs, what applies to them in trade organizations? For trade organizations, the list of direct expenses is fixed.

It is given in Article 320 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Direct costs include:

Purchase price of goods. The organization has the right to determine the procedure for its formation independently. Thus, the purchase price of goods can include expenses associated with the acquisition of goods. These are, for example, warehouse, insurance and other costs paid by another organization. Fix the selected option in your accounting policy for tax purposes;
costs associated with the delivery of goods to the organization’s warehouse (if they are not included in the purchase price).

All other costs of trading organizations, except non-operating ones, are indirect costs.

Write off direct expenses as you sell the purchased goods to which they relate. Indirect expenses should be taken into account when calculating income tax at the time of their accrual.

Equate direct expenses in tax accounting to expenses that form the purchase price of goods in accounting. In this case, temporary differences will not arise and the procedure for maintaining accounting and tax accounting will be closer.

Accounting for indirect expenses in the absence of income

If there is no income in the reporting period, the organization can only recognize indirect expenses. Direct expenses that relate to the balance of unsold products cannot be taken into account when calculating income tax. It turns out that if the organization has not sold anything, then it does not have any direct expenses. As for indirect expenses, they are in no way tied to the revenue received and can be taken into account in the current period. This follows from paragraph 2 of Article 318 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Moreover, if a specific expense does not bring direct income to the organization, this does not mean that it is unreasonable. It is enough that it is necessary for the activity that will result in the income generated. Thus, indirect expenses of an organization can be taken into account in reducing the tax base even in the case when income has not yet been received in the reporting period.

Calculation of indirect costs

Most industrial enterprises produce several types of products that differ in the amount of costs associated with the use of material and labor resources.

Complex expenses, which include items of general production and general economic expenses, cannot be attributed to the cost of a unit of production in a direct way.

Therefore, the amount of these costs in the cost of a unit of production (work, services) is usually determined indirectly, by calculating the so-called overhead costs.

The calculation of indirect cost items in the cost of a product is carried out as follows:

1. An estimate of the total costs is drawn up for each calculation item of indirect costs for a period of one year or a month for a specific division (shop) or for the entire enterprise.
2. A “base” indicator is selected from among the costing items calculated by the direct method. This can be either the item “Basic wages of production workers”, or the sum of the items of direct material costs, or the sum of direct material and direct labor costs. According to the selected indicator, costs for the period in this division are summed up.
3. The coefficient of inclusion of indirect costs in the cost of a unit of production is calculated in relative units or as a percentage. In the latter case, this coefficient is called the percentage of overhead costs P.

Calculations are performed using the formula:

pH=(SK/V)-100,
where SK is the estimate of indirect costs, thousand rubles;
B - the value of the base indicator, thousand rubles.

4. The value of the basic indicator in a unit of product (work, service) of a specific 1st type B is determined.
5. Based on the value of the base indicator per unit of product of a particular type and the calculated percentage of overhead costs, the amount of expenses for the corresponding indirect costing item per unit of product is determined:

Sk = p-v1/100,
Sk - the amount of costs for the indirect calculation item in the cost of a unit of production (work, service) of the 1st type;
B - the value of the basic indicator in a unit of production of a specific 1st type.

Write-off of indirect expenses

General business expenses can be written off in one of two ways:

– to account 20 “Main production” (23 “Auxiliary production”, 29 “Service production and facilities”);
- to account 90-2 “Cost of sales”.

The chosen method of writing off general business expenses is fixed in the accounting policy for accounting purposes (clause 7 of PBU 1/2008, clause 20 of PBU 10/99).

Cost Allocation

General production and general business expenses are associated with the production of different types of products (works, services), and also ensure the operation of the organization as a whole. Therefore, unlike direct (primary) costs, these costs are considered indirect (overhead).

At the end of the reporting period, accounts 25 and 26 are closed. The expenses accumulated on them are written off to the debit of accounts: 20 “Main production”, 23 “Auxiliary production”, 29 “Service production and facilities” or 90 “Sales” in proportion to the indicators that must be established in the accounting policy for accounting purposes (clause 7 PBU 1/2008).

The basis for the distribution of indirect costs between main, auxiliary and service production can be, for example, the following indicators:

Salaries of main production workers;
direct costs with a workshop structure of the organization;
the number of machine-hours worked for the equipment;
size of production area;
material costs;
volume of production in natural or cost terms.

For example, in industries with a significant share of labor costs, it is advisable to distribute indirect costs in proportion to the salaries of the main production workers. Distribute indirect costs in proportion to material costs (cost of raw materials, materials, spare parts, etc.) if they constitute a significant share of the cost of manufactured products.

An example of the distribution of indirect costs associated with fulfilling a production order. The organization uses the custom costing method.

In April, OJSC "Production Company "Master"" accepted and completed two production orders (No. 1 and No. 2) for the manufacture of special transport equipment. The accounting policy of “Master” stipulates that general production and general business expenses are distributed in proportion to the salaries of production workers involved in fulfilling each order.

In April, the actual amount of expenses was:

General production – 100,000 rubles;
general business – 125,000 rubles.

Direct costs for order No. 1 were:

Cost of materials used – 82,300 rubles;
salary of production workers - 68,500 rubles;
the amount of contributions for compulsory pension (social, medical) insurance and contributions for insurance against accidents and occupational diseases from the salaries of production workers is 20,687 rubles.

Total for order No. 1 – RUB 171,487.

Direct costs for order No. 2 were:

The cost of materials used is 151,500 rubles;
the amount of accrued wages of production workers is 55,000 rubles;
the amount of contributions for compulsory pension (social, medical) insurance and contributions for insurance against accidents and occupational diseases from the salaries of production workers is 16,610 rubles.

Total for order No. 2 – RUB 223,110.

The total salary of production workers for both orders was 123,500 rubles. (RUB 68,500 + RUB 55,000).

The share of wages of production workers in the total amount of their wages is equal to:

For order No. 1 – 55% (RUB 68,500: RUB 123,500);
for order No. 2 – 45% (RUB 55,000: RUB 123,500).

The cost of order No. 1 includes:

Part of overhead costs in the amount of RUB 55,000. (RUB 100,000 x 55%);
part of general business expenses in the amount of 68,750 rubles. (RUB 125,000 x 55%).

The actual cost of order No. 1 was:

RUB 171,487 + 55,000 rub. + 68,750 rub. = 295,237 rub.

The cost of order No. 2 includes:

Part of overhead costs in the amount of RUB 45,000. (RUB 100,000 – RUB 55,000);
part of general business expenses in the amount of RUB 56,250. (RUB 125,000 – RUB 68,750).

The actual cost of order No. 2 was:

RUB 223,110 + 45,000 rub. + 56,250 rub. = 324,360 rub.

Write-off of general production expenses

When writing off general production expenses (after distribution), make the following entry:

Debit 20 (23, 29) Credit 25
– general production expenses for the reporting month are written off.

This follows from the Instructions for the chart of accounts (accounts 20, 25).

Write-off of general business expenses

General business expenses can be written off in one of two ways:

To account 20 “Main production” (23 “Auxiliary production”, 29 “Service production and facilities”);
to account 90-2 “Cost of sales”.

Fix the chosen method of writing off general business expenses in the accounting policy for accounting purposes (clause 7 of PBU 1/2008, clause 20 of PBU 10/99).

In the first case, general business expenses form the “full” cost of finished products and are written off at the end of the month.

Record the write-off of general business expenses (after distribution) by posting:

Debit 20 (23, 29) Credit 26
– general business expenses associated with the activities of the main (auxiliary, servicing) production are written off.

In the second case, a “reduced” cost of finished products is formed, and general business expenses are completely written off for sales, regardless of how many products were sold in the reporting period.

At the moment of transfer of ownership of the shipped products (results of work or services) to the buyer, reflect the proceeds from its sale and write off the cost of the products (work, services) sold:

Debit 62 Credit 90-1
– revenue from the sale of products is reflected;
Debit 90-2 Credit 43
– the actual cost of shipped products (work performed, services rendered) is written off;
Debit 90-3 Credit 68 subaccount “VAT calculations”
– VAT is charged on sales proceeds.
At the end of the month, write off the amount of general business expenses:
Debit 90-2 Credit 26
– general business expenses are included in the cost of sales.

Depreciation indirect costs

Expenses, depending on their nature, as well as the conditions for implementation and areas of activity of the taxpayer, are divided into those related to production and sales and non-operating (clause 2 of Article 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Clause 2 of Art. 253 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation provides for a list of expenses associated with production and sales, which, in particular, include the amount of accrued depreciation.

The procedure for determining production costs when applying the accrual method is established by Art. 318 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. From the provisions of this article it follows that production and sales costs incurred by the taxpayer during the reporting (tax) period are divided into indirect and direct. In this case, the latter may include, in particular, the amounts of accrued depreciation on fixed assets used in the production of goods, works, and services.

The taxpayer independently determines in the accounting policy for tax purposes a list of direct expenses associated with the production of goods (performance of work, provision of services). This rule is enshrined in the last paragraph of paragraph 1 of Art. 318 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Accounting policy for tax purposes means the set of methods (methods) permitted by the Tax Code for determining income and (or) expenses, their recognition, assessment and distribution, as well as taking into account other indicators of the taxpayer’s financial and economic activities necessary for tax purposes (clause 2) chosen by the taxpayer. Article 11 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

According to Art. 313 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the accounting policy is approved by the corresponding order (instruction) of the head of the organization. When changing the accounting methods used by it, the decision to make changes to the accounting policy is made from the beginning of the new tax period, and when changing the legislation on taxes and fees - no earlier than from the moment the amendments to tax regulations come into force. Moreover, if the taxpayer began to carry out new types of activities, then he is obliged to determine and consolidate in the accounting policy the principles and procedure for reflecting these types of activities for tax purposes. By virtue of paragraph 2 of Art. 318 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, direct expenses refer to the costs of the current reporting (tax) period as products, works, and services are sold, the cost of which they are taken into account in accordance with Art. 319 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. This provision obliges the taxpayer to distribute direct expenses to work in progress and to products manufactured in the current month (work performed, services rendered), taking into account the correspondence of the expenses incurred to manufactured products (work performed, services rendered) in the manner established by its accounting policy for tax purposes.

Arbitration

So, if certain expenses cannot be attributed to a specific production process for the manufacture of the corresponding type of product (work, service), the taxpayer, in his accounting policy for tax purposes, independently determines the mechanism for distributing these expenses using economically sound indicators.

From the above provisions of tax legislation it follows that the list of direct expenses is not exhaustive and can be supplemented or changed by the taxpayer.

As an analysis of arbitration practice has shown, taxpayers, reasoning in this way, often classify as direct production costs only the main raw materials, materials and wages of workers (taking into account insurance contributions to extra-budgetary funds). The amount of accrued depreciation for the purpose of calculating income tax, in their opinion, can be included in indirect costs. Taxpayers believe that the above composition of direct expenses is due to the impossibility of determining which fixed assets are directly involved in the production process.

This position often leads to tax disputes with regulatory authorities. The courts, when considering them, indicate: the regulation on the accounting policy of the organization approved by the manager must contain an economic justification for the exclusion from direct expenses of depreciation amounts accrued on fixed assets used in the production of products. The organization's choice of direct costs must be justified by the technological process and be economically justified.

Thus, the FAS PO arbitrators (Resolution No. A49-3163), siding with the tax authority, indicated that fixed assets are directly occupied and used by the company in the production of products. Without them, production and sales of products are impossible. Accordingly, costs associated with depreciation of equipment should be classified as direct expenses for profit tax purposes.

According to the court, the company’s accounting policy does not contain an economic justification for excluding from direct expenses depreciation amounts accrued on fixed assets directly used in the production of products, which contradicts the requirements of Art. 252, 318 and 319 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. The economic justification for the applied procedure for accounting for direct costs, drawn up on the basis of production specifics and taking into account the economic and technical characteristics of production, was not presented during the trial.

Obviously, the conclusion that the accounting established by the taxpayer still makes it possible to highlight depreciation charges for fixed assets directly involved in the production process in the total amount of accrued depreciation was made by the judicial authorities on the basis that the controllers themselves calculated the amounts of depreciation to be included in composition of direct expenses. At the same time, the inspectors used the methodology for generating expenses approved in the accounting policy, data from the inventory carried out during the tax audit, as well as data from the company’s tax registers. Moreover, neither the inventory results nor the presented calculation of direct costs were refuted by the taxpayer. The organization has no claims to the list of fixed assets classified by the inspection as equipment used in the main production, as well as to the methodology for drawing up the specified calculation.

As a result, the company’s claim about the impossibility of allocating depreciation amounts for fixed assets involved in the main proceedings was rejected by the arbitrators as not consistent with the case materials and the calculation made by the tax authority. Due to the fact that the taxpayer did not provide the required justification for the applied procedure for determining direct expenses taking into account the economic and technical characteristics of production, his position regarding the attribution of the entire amount of accrued depreciation for the purpose of calculating income tax to indirect expenses based on the established accounting policy was recognized as unlawful.

Important point: By determination of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation No. VAS-9445/14, it was refused to transfer this case to the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court for review in the order of supervision.

Nevertheless, there are also court decisions that are positive for taxpayers. An example of this is Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service No. A36-4628. The manufacturing company, as in the previous situation, included depreciation accrued on all fixed assets as indirect expenses. At the same time (please note) the equipment for which depreciation was calculated was used in several technological processes (the taxpayer’s main activity is the production of pasta, additional activities include the production of flour and cereal industry products, flour from grain and vegetable crops, ready-made flour mixtures and dough, cereals, wholemeal flour, other grain products).

Thus, depreciation charges were fully recognized as expenses of the reporting (tax) period in which they arose, without allocation to work in progress and finished products. This procedure was enshrined in the company's accounting policy. In accordance with it, the organization's expenses were divided into variable and fixed. This was done with the aim of optimizing business processes, systematizing cost accounting for variable (direct) and fixed (indirect) cost items, bringing management, accounting and tax accounting closer together, as well as reducing the complexity of information processing.

In this regard, the organization classified expenses, the size of which in each reporting period depended on the volume of products produced (costs on raw materials, packaging, energy resources, wages of production workers), as variable and, accordingly, direct expenses. The company considered it economically justified and expedient from the point of view of reliability and simplification of cost accounting to distribute these costs to work in progress and finished products in the manner established by Art. 319 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. The same costs that did not depend on the results of production (fixed) were indirect costs for the taxpayer.

In other words, when classifying expenses in the form of depreciation deductions as indirect (that is, taken into account as part of the costs of the current period in full), the taxpayer proceeded from the fact that:

Depreciation is calculated using the straight-line method on a monthly basis for each fixed asset item, therefore, its size does not depend directly on the results of production and the volume of products produced. Therefore, distributing the accrued amount of depreciation between work in progress and finished products (as must be done in relation to direct costs) will entail additional costs and complicate the accounting process at the enterprise;
not all technological equipment for which depreciation is calculated is involved directly in the production process; some equipment is used not in one, but in several technological processes. This makes it impossible to distribute the accrued depreciation amount among specific types of products produced as direct costs. Such a distribution would ultimately lead to distortion of accounting and the impossibility of generating complete, reliable and objective information about the company’s activities due to a distortion of the amount of direct costs attributable to the balance of finished products.

All of the above arguments were enough for the arbitrators to recognize the taxpayer’s position as legitimate. They considered that the company had economically justified the feasibility of classifying depreciation charges as indirect expenses.

In any case, the taxpayer’s choice of a method for distributing direct and indirect costs (in this case we are talking about the need to classify depreciation costs of technological equipment as indirect costs) must be economically justified. After all, tax authorities, we believe, will continue to be of the opinion that the taxpayer has the right to take into account the amounts of accrued depreciation as part of indirect expenses only in the absence of a real possibility to attribute these costs to direct expenses, using economically justified indicators. In their opinion, the impossibility of attributing expenses that are direct in the formation of product costs to the production of one or another type of product must be determined by the technological process and economically motivated by the taxpayer.

To confirm the validity of this conclusion, inspectors refer to the explanations of the Federal Tax Service (for example, Letter No. KE-4-3/2952@), as well as the Determination of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation No. VAS-5306/10. The three senior arbitrators emphasized: by giving the taxpayer the opportunity to independently determine accounting policies, including the formation of the composition of direct expenses, the Tax Code does not consider this process as depending solely on the will of the taxpayer. On the contrary, these standards classify direct costs as costs directly related to the production of products.

By the way, such an argument as the laboriousness of the cost distribution process (together with the statement about the impossibility of allocating depreciation amounts for fixed assets involved in the main production) is unlikely to be accepted by the court. After all, these circumstances do not allow the taxpayer, at his own discretion, to exclude from the list of direct expenses established by Art. 318 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, depreciation of fixed assets used in the main production.

In the Resolution of the Eleventh Arbitration Court of Appeal No. A49-3163, the arbitrators noted that such a position contradicts Art. 313 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

According to this norm, taxpayers calculate the tax base at the end of each reporting (tax) period based on tax accounting data, which must reflect:

The procedure for forming the amount of income and expenses;
the procedure for determining the share of expenses taken into account for tax purposes in the current tax (reporting) period;
the amount of the balance of expenses (losses) to be attributed to expenses in the following tax periods;
the procedure for forming the amounts of created reserves;
the amount of debt for settlements with the budget for taxes.

If the accounting registers contain insufficient information to determine the tax base in accordance with the requirements of Chapter. 25 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the taxpayer has the right to independently supplement the applicable accounting registers, thereby forming tax accounting registers, or maintain independent tax accounting registers.

Nevertheless, as we can see, there is positive judicial practice. The fact that not a single regulatory document stipulates what the economic justification for the distribution of expenses into direct and indirect should be can serve as assistance to the taxpayer (in case of claims from the tax authority). Current legislation does not contain a definition of economically justified indicators. This allows the company to independently determine the form and content of the necessary justifications. In addition, according to the position of the Ministry of Finance, set out in Letter No. 03 03 06/1/803, one of the criteria for the distribution of costs into direct and indirect are accounting regulations, in accordance with which the taxpayer acted in one of the legal proceedings discussed above (Resolution FAS CO No. A36-4628).

To determine the full actual cost of a product, work or service, it is necessary to add up all the costs associated with its production (performance of work or provision of services). Depending on the method of including certain costs in the cost price, direct and indirect costs are distinguished.

Direct costs are expenses that are directly related to the production of certain types of products and which can be directly included in their cost. Such costs, for example, may be the cost of raw materials and supplies, wages of key production workers, etc.

Indirect costs are those costs that are associated with the production of several types of products and which, accordingly, cannot be directly included in the cost of specific types of products. Such expenses are subject to distribution between types of products in proportion to the selected base. Examples of indirect costs are general shop costs, general business expenses, etc.

Accounting for direct production costs

Direct production costs are reflected primarily in account 20 “Main production” (Order of the Ministry of Finance dated October 31, 2000 No. 94n). The debit of this account collects direct expenses directly related to the production of products, performance of work or provision of services from the credit of the following accounts:

• 02 “Depreciation of fixed assets”;
• 10 "Materials";
• 23 “Auxiliary production”;
• 26 “General business expenses”;
• 60 “Settlements with suppliers and contractors”;
• 69 “Calculations for social insurance and security”;
• 70 “Settlements with personnel for wages”, etc.

Analytical accounting on account 20 is carried out by types of costs and types of products, which makes it possible to calculate the cost of each specific type of product on this account.

Direct costs for production of products can also be taken into account on account 23 “Auxiliary production” and then debited to account 20.

Indirect costs

Indirect costs associated with the management and maintenance of production are recorded in the following accounts:

• 25 “General production expenses”;
• 26 “General business expenses”.

Accounting entries on the debit of these accounts can be made from the credit of the same accounting accounts that were used when accounting for the costs of the main production. However, given the nature of indirect costs, it is not supposed to be possible to directly attribute their value to the cost of a particular product. Such expenses must be allocated taking into account one or another justified allocation basis. Its choice depends on the specifics of each specific organization, its industry, type of production and other factors. This choice should be fixed in.

Here is an example of the distribution of indirect costs

The organization produces two types of products: product A and product B. Direct costs for the production of products are collected on the corresponding sub-accounts to account 20. General shop costs for March 2019, collected on the debit of account 25, amount to 120,000.00 rubles.

In accordance with the accounting policy of the organization, general shop expenses for the month are distributed in proportion to the direct wages of the main production workers for this month.

Information on the amount of direct wages of main production workers for March 2019 is reflected in the table:

Step 1: Find the distribution coefficient of general shop expenses. It shows how many rubles of general production costs are per 1 ruble of the salary of the main workers (for greater accuracy, it is advisable to round the coefficient to the maximum possible decimal place):

K = 120,000.00 / 950,000.00 = 0.1263…

Step 2: Find the part of overhead costs (OPR) related to product A (OPR A) and product B (OPR B):

ODA A = 560,000.00 * 0.1263... = 70,736.84 rubles

OPR B = 390,000.00 * 0.1263... = 49,263.16 rubles.

Step 3: We write off the general production costs attributable to product A and product B:

Debit account 20, subaccount “Product A” - Credit account 25 70 736,84

Debit account 20, subaccount “Product B” - Credit account 25 49 263,16

How to distribute expenses into direct and indirect for the purpose of calculating income tax? Can everything be classified as indirect costs?

If the taxpayer determines income and expenses using the accrual method, production and sales expenses are determined taking into account the provisions of Article 318 of the Tax Code.

Let us remember that expenses must be divided into direct and indirect (Clause 1, Article 318 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). The legislator proposes a list of direct expenses. In particular, these include:

• costs for the purchase of raw materials and supplies used in production (subclause 1, clause 1, article 254 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
• costs for the acquisition of components undergoing installation and (or) semi-finished products undergoing additional processing from the taxpayer (subclause 4, clause 1, article 254 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
• expenses for remuneration of personnel who are directly involved in the process of production of goods (works, services). They also include expenses for compulsory pension insurance to finance the insurance and funded parts of the labor pension, compulsory social insurance in case of temporary disability and in connection with maternity, compulsory medical insurance, compulsory social insurance against industrial accidents and occupational diseases, which are accrued for the specified amounts of labor costs (Article 255, paragraph 1 of Article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
• the amount of accrued depreciation on fixed assets used in the production of goods, works, and services.

Indirect expenses include all other amounts of expenses, with the exception of non-operating expenses (Article 265 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Please note that the Tax Code specifies expenses that must be recognized as indirect, and they are also contained in the income tax return.

Why is separation necessary?

The most important difference is that the amount of indirect expenses in full relates to the expenses of the current reporting (tax) period, and direct expenses - to the expenses of the current period as goods and work are sold, that is, taking into account the balances of work in progress (letters from the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated March 25 2010 No. 03-03-06/1/182, dated June 9, 2009 No. 03-03-06/1/382). The exception is cases when the organization's activities are related to the provision of services. These taxpayers have the right to attribute the amount of direct expenses of the reporting (tax) period in full to the reduction of income from production and sales of this reporting (tax) period without distribution to the balances of work in progress (paragraph 3 of paragraph 2 of Article 318 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, letter from the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated August 31, 2009 No. 03-03-06/1/557).

Important

For tax purposes, a service is an activity whose results do not have material expression and are sold and consumed in the process of carrying out this activity (Article 38 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Moreover, the provision of services and the performance of work are different things, since the result of the work has a material expression and can be realized.

If an organization combines the provision of services with the performance of work, then part of the direct costs that fall on services can be fully attributed to the expenses of the reporting (tax) period (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated September 11, 2009 No. 03-03-06/ 4/77).

To determine the portion of direct costs that fall on products sold in the current period, direct costs should be distributed among the balances of work in progress, the balances of finished products in the warehouse and the balances of products shipped but not sold at the end of the reporting month. You do not take into account the amount of direct expenses attributable to these balances in the current reporting (tax) period.

Due to the linking of direct costs to sales, organizations tend to transfer part of them to indirect costs or even limit themselves to only the latter. But this cannot be done, because the Tax Code clearly states that expenses should be divided into direct and indirect, and the organization has the right to decide how exactly.

When filling out an income tax return, the amount of direct expenses for goods, works, and services sold should be reflected on line 010-030 of Appendix No. 2 to sheet 02. The amount of indirect expenses - on line 040 and partially deciphered on lines 041 - 055 of Appendix No. 2 to sheet 02. The amount of these lines is reflected in line 130 of Appendix No. 2 to sheet 02, the value of which is transferred to line 030 “Expenses that reduce the amount of income from sales” of sheet 02 of the declaration.

Self-separation

The list of direct expenses is approximate, and the organization has the right to independently establish one different from that given in the Tax Code. This list should be fixed in the accounting policy (letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated May 25, 2010 No. 03-03-06/2/101, dated November 12, 2009 No. 03-03-06/1/742, Federal Tax Service of Russia for the city of Moscow dated February 2, 2010 No. 16-12/009984@). Although there is an opinion that when dividing costs into direct and indirect, the taxpayer should be guided by the above provisions of Article 318 of the Tax Code (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated May 29, 2009 No. 03-03-06/1/355). In other words, the list of direct expenses given in the code is mandatory, and the organization, at its discretion, can add others to them.

We are of the opinion that the organization has the right to independently decide which expenses are recognized as direct. In this case, you should justify your decision. After all, during a tax audit, inspectors will definitely be interested in indirect expenses and will try to prove their direct origin. The court also pointed out this: excluding material costs from direct costs and including them in indirect costs without proper economic justification entails an illegal understatement of the income tax base. Regardless of the fact that the organization has the right to determine the list of direct expenses itself in its accounting policy, material costs can be classified as indirect expenses only if there is no real possibility of classifying them as direct (clause 1 of Article 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Ural District dated 25 February 2010 No. Ф09-799/10-С3).

Important

If in the accounting policy the organization has not determined which expenses are considered direct, then by default officials believe that direct expenses correspond to the list specified in Article 318 of the Tax Code (Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Far Eastern District dated November 6, 2009 No. F03-4942/2009) . When legislation introduces changes to this list, the organization will be required to take into account the corresponding changes from the moment they enter into force (Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Volga-Vyatka District dated November 20, 2009 No. A82-7247/2008-99). Therefore, it is better to independently approve the list of direct expenses in the accounting policy.

As practice shows, it is not always possible to clearly classify specific types of costs as direct or indirect costs. It depends on the type of activity. In this regard, the organization should register such costs separately in the accounting policy and classify them as direct or indirect expenses, that is, add specifics on “disputed” expenses. These actions will serve as a good shield against the nagging of tax authorities (Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Ural District dated April 28, 2008 No. F09-2757/08-S3).

Sharp corners

Accountants more than once encounter situations where quite logical and seemingly easy legal norms cause difficulties in practice. So this issue is not without its sharp corners, which are easy to stumble upon. We will try to smooth them out. What you might encounter:

Easy to organize. The taxpayer's expenses attributable to direct expenses that he incurs during forced downtime should be taken into account as part of non-operating expenses (clause 2 of Article 265 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Indirect expenses that the taxpayer continues to incur during forced downtime are taken into account for profit tax purposes as part of the corresponding groups of expenses (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated September 21, 2010 No. 03-03-06/1/601).

Changes at the beginning of the year. A situation may arise when, from the beginning of the year, the organization decided to change the list of direct expenses, fixing it in its accounting policies. Due to these changes, part of the costs that were previously direct will be considered indirect from the beginning of the year. The question arises: what to do with the direct costs accumulated by the end of the year, awaiting implementation, which have been reflected in the accounting policy as indirect since the beginning of the year? According to the Ministry of Finance, such costs that fall on work in progress and unsold products will not be taken into account. In the new tax period, they will also have to be written off as goods (work) are sold. And you can write off at a time only those costs that have been incurred since the beginning of the new tax period (letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated September 15, 2010 No. 03-03-06/1/588, dated May 20, 2010 No. 03-03-06/1 /336). It is difficult to argue with officials, because direct expenses relate to the expenses of the current reporting (tax) period as they are realized. And since such expenses have already formed the cost of unfinished or unsold products, they will have to wait for sale. And changing the accounting policy from the beginning of the year will not allow them to be written off at once.

No revenue. An organization has the right to write off direct expenses for profit tax purposes only in the period when revenue is reflected in taxable income, therefore it will not be possible to recognize direct expenses without sales, and therefore without revenue (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated April 9, 2010 No. 03-03-06/1 /246). But the Tax Code allows indirect and non-operating expenses to be written off at a time in the period in which they were incurred (clause 2 of Article 318 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). That is, in the absence of revenue, indirect expenses are recognized as losses, which will reduce the income received later (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated March 6, 2008 No. 03-03-06/1/153). But in practice, organizations have to defend the right to write off indirect costs, since officials often confuse the lack of sales in a specific period with the lack of commercial activity in general. Thus, in one resolution, judges explained to tax authorities that the lack of income in the reporting period cannot be a basis for refusing to recognize indirect expenses incurred by the taxpayer (Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow District dated March 31, 2010 No. KA-A40/2740-10 in case No. A40-93652/09-127-559).

The easiest thing in this situation is for organizations that provide services. They have the right to completely write off both direct and indirect expenses in the current period, regardless of receipt of revenue (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated August 31, 2009 No. 03-03-06/1/557).

Often, regulatory authorities try to recognize expenses as economically unjustified if the taxpayer did not receive income or incurred a loss in the reporting (tax) period. But officials do not take into account that the proceeds received from sales may not cover the expenses incurred. This does not equate to the fact that the organization did not conduct activities and did not receive revenue. It’s just that the financial result may be negative. And revenue should not be confused with income. Both officials of the financial department and judges speak about this: if the expenses incurred meet the requirements of Article 252 of the Tax Code, then they are taken into account when determining the tax base for income tax, regardless of the presence or absence of income from sales in the corresponding tax period (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated 25 August 2010 No. 03-03-06/1/565, resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Central District dated February 9, 2010 in case No. A14-14803/2008/500/24).

Direct costs on hold. If during the reporting (tax) period the taxpayer does not have transactions for the sale of goods recognized as objects of VAT taxation in the main type of activity, but carries out other types of activities that are subject to taxation, VAT deductions on purchased goods (works, services), including to be used in the main type of activity are carried out in accordance with the generally established procedure (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated October 12, 2010 No. 03-07-11/402).

Material prepared by S. Shestakova