Tax accounting of shortages

The identified deficiencies are reflected in the tax accounting in accordance with the provisions of the Tax Code.

If the identified shortages do not, finally, exceed the norms of natural loss, then in accordance with subparagraph 2 of paragraph 7 of article 254 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, material costs for tax purposes are equal to losses from shortages and (or) damage during storage and transportation of material production reserves within the limits of normal loss, approved in the manner prescribed by the Government of the Russian Federation (see Appendix 1).

Please note: the provisions of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation do not provide for the attribution of losses from shortage and (or) damage to material costs during storage and transportation of goods and materials within the limits of natural loss rates determined in the manner prescribed by local acts of the taxpayer (letter of the Federal Tax Service of 30.07.2010 No. 15/080278 @).

If the amounts of the identified shortages, therefore, are recovered from the perpetrators, then the Tax Accountants Walsall has non-operating income in accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 250 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Such income is recognized at the moment the employee admits his own guilt or at the time the court decision enters into force in accordance with clause 4 of clause 4 of article 271 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

With all this, the Tax Code lacks, as most of us constantly say, direct instructions as to whether the amount of such shortfall is included in expenses that reduce taxable profit. But the very amount of the shortfall reduces the economic benefits of the company and is inherently an expense.

In accordance with clause 1 of article 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the taxpayer reduces the acquired income by the amount of expenses made, if they are justified and documented.

The documents confirming the expenses of the organization in connection with the shortage may be:

• inventory statements;
• acts confirming the shortage;
• the conclusion of the commission investigating the shortage;
• employee explanatory note.

Having collected all the necessary documents, the amount of the shortage can be fully taken into account in the composition of expenses. Few people know that this position is confirmed by a letter from the Ministry of Finance dated 17.04.2007. No. 03-03-06 / 1/245.

If there is a shortage due to force majeure events, in the absence of the guilty persons or if the court refuses to recover damages, the costs of the shortage are taken into account as part of the organization's non-operating expenses.

In accordance with subparagraph 5 of paragraph 2 of Article 265 of the Tax Code, non-operating expenses are equal to losses acquired by the taxpayer in the reporting (tax) period, including in the form of a shortage of MC in production and in warehouses, at trade enterprises in the absence perpetrators, as well as losses from theft, the culprits of which have not been identified. It must be said that in these options the fact of the absence of the guilty persons must be documented by an authorized body of state power.

In his own letter dated 27.08.2010. No. 03-03-06 / 4/81, the Ministry of Finance confirmed that with documentary evidence (in accordance with subparagraph 5 of paragraph 2 of Article 265 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation) the fact of the absence of guilty persons by the authorized state authority, for the purpose of calculating income tax, the taxpayer can reduce the acquired income by the amount of non-operating expenses in the form of losses from theft.

In the absence of documentary evidence of the absence, as we constantly say, of the guilty persons, expenses in the form of shortages are not included in the composition of expenses for tax accounting purposes.

Please note: transport costs, customs duties and fees in part attributable to the shortage of the product in excess of the norms of natural loss are not, so to speak, taken into account for profit tax purposes, since they do not meet the requirements of paragraph 1 of Art. 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, as well as the shortage of the product (see subparagraph 2 of paragraph 7 of Article 254 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, paragraph 2 of the Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation of 08/10/2005 N 03-03-04 / 1/160).