What is a medium business. Small, medium and large businesses: concepts and main features

Some legislative acts of the Russian Federation have undergone significant adjustments. In particular, the classification criteria for small business enterprises have changed, and from June 2015 a number of additional opportunities open up for businessmen.

Who is a small business?

A small business is a small firm registered as a peasant farm, LLC or individual entrepreneur and meets several parameters established by law. After the entry into force of the Federal Law "On amendments ..." dated June 29, 2015, the conditions for classifying small businesses have changed significantly and additional benefits have appeared.

Thus, for small businesses, only the number of employees remained unchanged, and an increase in the size of investments provides a number of undoubted advantages:

• The possibility of acquiring the most modern machinery and other equipment for the development of the company in the event that the previously established fixed capital was not designed for this.
• Increasing profits and turnover.
• Improving product quality.
• Greater opportunities for business development.

Recently, the Government of the Russian Federation has taken a course towards popularization of small innovative enterprises involved in the development and implementation of new programs and technologies, the creation and production of goods, the provision of services and works. Most often, such organizations are located at various universities and research institutes, work in the economic or scientific and technical fields, and foreign investors prefer to invest their money in them.

Microenterprise and small enterprise: the difference

A micro-enterprise is a subgroup of a small business that meets certain criteria. You can see the difference between micro and small enterprises here:

Benefits of creating micro-enterprises:

• Reduced tax rate (9%) for individual entrepreneurs.
• There is no need to provide a sworn auditor's opinion when submitting annual reports to the Federal Tax Service.
• No obligations for advance payments of income tax.
• Opportunity to work part-time at several business entities for employees of a microcompany.

Not without cons here:

• Some benefits are closed to employees.
• The same accounting rules for all forms of tax payments to the organization.
• Changing the status from a micro-enterprise tax payer to a personal income tax payer or a company is possible only after the end of the tax period.
• When an employee works only in a micro-enterprise, the amount of benefits from the Social Security Service is reduced.

Speaking of small businesses, the list of advantages is expanding significantly:

• Simplified bookkeeping.
• Exemption from VAT if the amount of proceeds from the sale of goods for the last quarter is more than 2,000,000 rubles.
• Possibility of using USN.

The transition to the simplified tax system exempts from accounting, but it can only be carried out if over the past 9 months the individual entrepreneur has received no more than 15,000,000 rubles. revenue, and the residual value of intangible assets and fixed assets is not more than 100,000,000 rubles. There are no exemptions for legal entities.

Disadvantages of creating a small business entity:

• Greater dependence on larger organizations.
• Unstable exchange rates.
• Difficulties in attracting investors from other countries, as they are in most cases interested in larger investments and, accordingly, profits.

Do I need confirmation of their status by small businesses?

To be classified as a small business, it is enough that the company meets the specified criteria, i.e. no confirmation is needed: when submitting annual reports, the Federal Tax Service sees the results of financial activities.

If a legal entity needs to confirm the composition of the LLC participants, then this can be done using the decision on the establishment or an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, which can be ordered on the website of the Federal Tax Service.

What benefits are provided for small businesses?

In accordance with the criteria established by law, subjects receive many benefits:

• The absence of a cash limit and the possibility of storing any amount at the cash desk: for this, it is enough to issue an order from the head of the company.
• Increasing the likelihood of receiving subsidies from local authorities.
• Until July 1, 2018, it is possible to purchase municipal or state real estate on a preferential basis.
• Reduction of terms of non-tax audits.
• Tax holidays for organizations operating in the social, industrial or scientific sphere.

Also, a draft law was submitted to the State Duma, exempting all entrepreneurs from January 1, 2016 from supervisory checks, if they had not previously been deprived of their licenses and did not commit gross violations in the course of their activities.

More details can be found in this video:

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are organizations and individual entrepreneurs that, in accordance with certain conditions, belong to small and medium-sized enterprises and information about which is indicated in the unified register of such entities (clause 1, article 3 of the Federal Law of July 24, 2007 No. 209-FZ). Being an SME and especially a small business is convenient, because small businesses, for example, can generally lead and compile. Small businesses may not approve the cash balance limit (clause 2 of the Directive of the Central Bank of March 11, 2014 No. 3210-U). Many small businesses cannot conduct scheduled inspections in 2019 (but we are not talking about inspections by the Federal Tax Service, the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation or the FSS) (part 3.1, article 1, article 26.2 of the Federal Law of December 26, 2008 No. 294-FZ).

Medium and small enterprises: criteria 2019

The criteria for small businesses in 2019 are established by Art. 4 of the Federal Law of July 24, 2007 No. 209-FZ.

For small and medium-sized businesses, we will group the 2019 criteria in tables.

At the same time, we will divide such criteria into 3 groups: legal criteria, criteria for the number and criteria for income. If a business entity or business partnership meets at least one of the legal criteria, it is necessary to verify their compliance with the headcount criterion (more precisely, the average number of employees for the previous calendar year) and the income criterion. But for production, consumer cooperatives, peasant (farmer) households and individual entrepreneurs, only the criteria of number and income are important. Other conditions for them are not taken into account.

Legal Criteria

For business entities and partnerships, the legal criteria for classifying an enterprise as a small business are as follows.

Small and medium enterprises: 2019 criteria by number

Small and Medium Businesses: Income Criteria

Not many people know the difference between small, medium and large businesses. To understand the differences between these concepts should, especially, a novice entrepreneur. In the case of defining the idea of ​​entrepreneurship and writing a business plan, you should have ideas about the future occupation.

What it is

Small business is the most common form of entrepreneurship, which is chosen by most start-up businessmen.

Medium business̶ it is a form of entrepreneurial activity that, in comparison with a small business, has a more impressive annual income and more extensive and diverse resources for commercial activities.

Big business is a form of entrepreneurship that includes popular companies covering an entire country or more than 2 countries of the world, as well as having a strong demand from consumers.

Key Features of Entrepreneurship

Each form of commercial activity ̶ SMEs or big business has its own characteristics, which makes them different from each other.

small features

Small businesses are not only individual entrepreneurs, but also companies whose average annual number of employees is at least 50 people.

The territorial activity of these companies is small, and the list of their areas of activity may include:

• the shops;
• firms with a small production that produce small volumes of goods;
• companies with tourism activities;
• medical offices (dental, etc.);
• various training courses, etc.

For small businesses, the period for conducting inspections has been reduced and annually is no more than 50 hours.

Until December 31, 2018, these businesses are granted a two-year supervisory vacation, during which no supervision will be carried out. Sanepidemnadzor and fire inspection visits are not threatened, and the activity license will not be checked.

According to part 2 of article 10 of the Federal Law “On the protection of the rights of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs in the exercise of state control (supervision) and municipal control”, upon receipt of complaints from consumers about violations of the law, an audit will be carried out.

In 2018, entrepreneurs who:

• register for the first time;
• carry out industrial, social or scientific activities;
• provide services to the public.

Small businesses do not need proof of status. It is only necessary to adhere to the above limits (income, number of employees and share in the authorized capital). If the limits were exceeded within 1 or 2 years, then this is not a reason for losing status. In this case, it will be kept for 3 calendar years.

signs of mean

Compared to a small business, medium business includes entire networks of enterprises working for a large consumer audience. This entrepreneurial form can carry out its activities not only within the whole city, even within the region.

Compared with small businesses, where a large role is assigned to staff, on average - the quality of goods (services) is put in the foreground. Since the average enterprise is not large, it will not be difficult for it to adapt to changing market conditions.

Large or big business

Large businesses can spend money advertising their products on the most popular television channels. In different cities and countries, this form of business has its own branches and representative bodies, employing hundreds of thousands of employees.

The subjects of large business are large companies that:

• engaged in the production of equipment: Apple, Bosch, Samsung, Lenovo, etc.;
• produce food products: MC.Donald, Nestle, Coca Cola, etc.;
• produce vehicles of automobile brands: Ferrari, Bogati, Alfa Romeo, BMW, etc.

The criteria are easy. In order to be a major entrepreneur, you must meet the following:

• have at least 251 employees:
• receive income of at least 2 billion rubles;
• timely inventory and revaluation of fixed assets.

Since 2016, a unified register of SMEs has been operating, which contains enterprises that have received the status of SMEs.

These forms of entrepreneurship acquire the status of SMEs if they meet the criteria below:

• have a certain amount of income;
• have a certain number of employees;
• have a certain share of participation of other companies in the authorized capital.

According to article 4 of the Federal Law "On the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the Russian Federation", these limits do not apply:

• persons holding shares in the economic high-tech sector;
• persons participating in the Skolkovo project;
• companies that practically apply the latest technologies developed by their owners ̶ budgetary and scientific institutions;
• companies whose founders are included in the government list of persons who provide state support for innovation.

If an individual entrepreneur does not have employees, then his status is determined by the criterion of their annual income. If individual entrepreneurs and LLCs were included in the unified register of SMEs for the first time, then their status should be determined by the criterion of the number of employees.

If an enterprise receives the status of an SME, then certain benefits are provided to it, namely:

• the right to keep as much money in the cash register as you want and there will be no fine for this.
• the ability to maintain simplified accounting. This does not apply to individual entrepreneurs, since they are not required to keep records. And companies are required to charge annual depreciation, and not once a month.
• endowed with an advantage in the purchase of state and municipal real estate, etc.

List of enterprises that meet the specified criteria, annually formed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. This list is provided to the Federal Tax Service of Russia, after which certain information is entered in the register by the tax authorities.

We bring to your attention a video that talks about why big business wins.

Main advantages

Both SMEs and large companies have their own strengths and weaknesses.

The list of advantages of small business is as follows:

• the presence of a small need for initial capital;
• relatively low costs during the implementation of entrepreneurial activities;
• availability of a quick response to changes in the market sphere;
• the presence of a relatively fast turnover of equity capital;
• the trend of growth of vacant vacancies, which has a beneficial effect on the increase in populated employment.

The main advantages of a medium-sized business are:

• creation of new places of employment;
• high productivity of capital investments;
• relatively high profitability;
• high competitiveness and mobility.

Big business is also endowed with positive qualities, namely:

• the ability to ensure economic stability in the country;
• the ability to change the external business environment;
• the ability to save on production costs;
• implementation of modern technologies in business, etc.

Cons and risks

In order to start building your business, an entrepreneur must familiarize himself with the main disadvantages of various enterprises. For example, small business has the following disadvantages:

• relatively high level of risk;
• dependence on big business;
• the presence of a low professional level of managers;
• difficulties in obtaining loans and subsidies.

The size of the initial capital also matters. For example, if this size is large, then the firm will be able to hold out during the crisis period.

Medium business also has certain disadvantages, namely:

• the presence of fierce competition and the threat of being taken over by large companies;
• the presence of barriers and difficulties in obtaining a license and patents;
• frequent shortage of working capital;
• difficulties in obtaining loans due to lack of confidence in banks.

Big business is also not without problems. The main disadvantages of this business are the presence:

• excessive economic concentration;
• localization of economic relations;
• blocking horizontal commercial links that do not go beyond a particular company.

Differences among themselves

For an illustrative example of the differences between small medium and large businesses, we can cite the following table.

Basis for success

Despite the dependence on the external environment, small business can also be successful. Only the best employees in their field work here. The success of this business is determined by having a strategic plan for the development of the enterprise.

Medium business can easily adapt to changing market conditions. Success also depends on having effective management.

The main success of a large enterprise is the presence of effective business models that are built in such a way that even after 10 years they continue to work, surviving crisis situations and bringing huge income.

Regulatory regulation

Questions regarding the implementation of entrepreneurial activities by SMEs and large companies, governed by a number of laws, namely:

1. Federal Law "On the protection of the rights of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs in the exercise of state control (supervision) and municipal control" dated December 26, 2008 No. 294-FZ.
2. Federal Law "On the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the Russian Federation" dated July 24, 2007 No. 209-FZ.

Significant changes have been made to the law on small businesses. There is an official resource on the Internet where you can check whether your company belongs to the NSR. But it is also important to understand the requirements of the law, so that in case of a mistake by officials, you can clarify the status of your enterprise and take advantage of the appropriate benefits, if any. In the article, we will consider what the subject of small and medium-sized businesses means, and who belongs to them. In the article we will talk about small businesses and who belongs to them in 2018.

In the article:

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What are small and medium enterprises?

The concept of small businesses, as well as medium-sized businesses, is disclosed in the law of July 24, 2007 No. 209-FZ “On the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the Russian Federation”. Such entities can include both legal entities and entrepreneurs, if they meet a number of requirements.

For a small and medium-sized business, the compliance criteria are given in paragraph 1 of Art. 4 of the above law. In the article, we will consider them a little lower.

The division of economic entities into categories was introduced in order to introduce some benefits or impose less requirements on the document flow and reporting of those entities for which such concessions are acceptable, given the scale of entrepreneurial activity.

The Ministry of Finance, in a letter dated July 25, 2017 No. 03-11-11 / 47293, structured information on some tax benefits for SMEs. In particular, the possibility of reducing tax rates when applying special tax regimes was mentioned.

Who belongs to small businesses in 2018?

Small business criteria are provided for both individual entrepreneurs and organizations. The size criterion applies to everyone: SMEs include entities with up to 100 employees, including entities with up to 15 employees, inclusive, are already considered micro-enterprises.

There is also a limitation on income, which applies to both individual entrepreneurs and organizations.

Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 04.04.2016 No. 265 sets the values ​​for the maximum income. Small business categories by income:

In a letter dated August 25, 2017 No. GD-4-14/16894@, the tax authorities explain that when entering information into the Unified Register of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses, officials take information on the average headcount and income for the previous calendar year. At the same time, this information is entered on August 10 based on the above data that entered the system by July 1.

The requirements for individual entrepreneurs to be classified as NSR are limited here, but other requirements are imposed on enterprises.

Parameters of micro business, small and medium enterprises for legal entities and individual entrepreneurs

Please note that IPs must also meet these criteria. From this table you will find out which enterprises are classified as small businesses (SMBs).

Definition of a small business entity. This is a business with a revenue of no more than 2 billion rubles. per year and the number of employees is not more than 250 people.

Additional signs of a small business entity for enterprises

In accordance with the general criteria from the previous section among enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses include:

• enterprises in which the share of other legal entities in the authorized capital does not exceed a quarter or 49%, if we are talking about the shares of foreign legal entities or legal entities that are not related to SMEs;
• joint-stock companies with shares related to the innovation sector;
• organizations - participants of Skolkovo;
• organizations conducting activities for the implementation of intellectual property from to sub. c) clause 1.1 of Art. 4 Law No. 209-FZ;
• organizations with the composition of the founders, corresponding sub. e) Clause 1.1 of Art. 4 of Law No. 209-FZ.

What benefits are available for those who meet the criteria for classifying an organization as a small business

Small business entities have a number of concessions regarding certain accounting procedures, document management and taxation. For example, SMP representatives have the right to:

• Maintain simplified accounting. This includes both some exceptions when applying accounting standards (for example, when calculating depreciation of fixed assets, etc.), and the composition of accounting records. It can be taken in a simplified form with enlarged indicators and without some forms.
• Keep a simplified accounting of cash transactions, including not setting a cash balance limit.
• Reduced duration of scheduled inspections during the calendar year;
• Apply preferential rates for some taxes in some regions;
• And other rights.

Is an individual entrepreneur a small business?

All individual entrepreneurs can be classified as SMEs if they meet the limits on the number of employees and income. The specifics of the activity for entrepreneurs does not matter.

Where to check the status of a small business entity?

There is a special resource of the Federal Tax Service on the Internet where you can check whether your company or yourself, as an individual entrepreneur, belongs to small businesses. If you do not find yourself in this list, but at the same time meet all the criteria of the SMP, officials urge you to report an error. After appropriate verification, the information will be edited. With the help of this service you can define SMP.

Which entered into force on June 30, the share of participation of foreign legal entities, as well as enterprises that are not small and medium-sized, in the authorized capital of small and medium-sized businesses has been increased from 25 to 49 percent. The same law establishes that the category of a small or medium-sized business (SME) changes only if the values ​​of revenue and the number of employees are above or below the limit values ​​for three (and not two, as before) calendar years.

Recall that the criteria for small and medium-sized businesses are given in Article 4 of the Federal Law of July 24, 2007 No. 209-FZ (hereinafter - Law No. 209-FZ). Such entities include consumer cooperatives, commercial organizations (with the exception of SUEs and MUPs), individual entrepreneurs and farms, for which the following conditions are met.

The first condition is the average number of employees

For the previous calendar year, the average number of employees of an organization or individual entrepreneur should not exceed the headcount limits for each category of an SME entity:

• from one hundred one to two hundred and fifty people inclusive for medium-sized enterprises;
• up to one hundred people inclusive for small enterprises (micro-enterprises stand out among small enterprises - up to fifteen people).

The second condition is the proceeds from the sale of goods (works, services)

The proceeds of an organization or individual entrepreneur from sales, excluding VAT, for the last calendar year should not exceed 60 million rubles for micro-enterprises, 400 million rubles for small enterprises and 1 billion rubles for medium-sized enterprises.

Limit values ​​of revenue are approved by the Government of the Russian Federation. At the same time, the previous version of Article 4 of Law No. 209-FZ obliged such values ​​to be reviewed every five years. The law excludes the requirement for such periodicity.

An important point: earlier, in order for an organization or individual entrepreneur to receive or lose the status of an SME, both conditions (indicators of average headcount and revenue) must be met or not met for two calendar years in a row. And under the new rules, effective from June 30, the category of an SME will change only if the values ​​of revenue and the number of employees are above or below the limit values ​​for three consecutive calendar years. That is, if, for example, revenue for 2013-2015. will exceed 400 million rubles, then the organization will cease to be recognized as a small business entity only in 2016.

The third condition (only for organizations) - the share of participation in the authorized capital

Until June 30, small and medium-sized businesses, in general, included organizations in the authorized capital of which:

• the total share of participation of the state, constituent entities of the Russian Federation, municipalities, foreign organizations, public and religious organizations, as well as charitable and other foundations did not exceed 25 percent.
• the share of participation of one or more enterprises that are not small and medium did not exceed 25 percent.

Since June 30, the share requirements for some organizations have changed. Now, small and medium-sized businesses, in the general case, include organizations in the authorized capital of which:

• the share of participation of the state, subjects of the Russian Federation, municipalities, charitable and other foundations, public and religious organizations in the authorized capital of the organization does not exceed 25 percent;
• the total share of participation of foreign legal entities does not exceed 49 percent;
• the total share of participation of one or more enterprises that are not small and medium does not exceed 49 percent.

Recall that organizations and entrepreneurs belonging to small businesses can significantly simplify their accounting and reporting. In addition, they have a simplified procedure for cash discipline.