Small businesses have a simplified access to state support

On November 7, the law on monthly register updating comes into force that will significantly simplify access to benefits and state support measures for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Previously, the register was updated only once a year - on August 10. Companies that made mistakes when submitting their applications or did not submit their reports on time, lost the opportunity to get favorable credit facilities, special tax regimes or get preferences for public procurement. During COVID-19, government SMEs support programs were also unavailable.

The president of the «OPORA RUSSIA» organization, Alexander Kalinin reports that it led to contradictory trends. This year, the register recorded that 1.2 million small companies left the market and there were set up 870,000 new ones. Last year, there were three times less - 80,000. According to the «OPORA RUSSIA» organization, a significant part of them was removed from the register due to the failure to submit reports.

Now, the Federal tax service will collect data from companies on a monthly basis (until the 10th day of each month). Meanwhile, companies will still be excluded from the register only once a year - on August 10. The deputy сhief еxecutive of the SME corporation, Natalia Larionova explains that entrepreneurs who has not yet submitted reports for the previous year, will be able to do that and get the SME status next month.

The «OPORA RUSSIA» staff believes that, the innovations will significantly reduce the number of companies "excluded" from the register. Natalia Larionova says, that the new law will also provide objective tracking of the SME sector dynamics. Today, there are 5,6 million SME, almost all of them (96%) - micro-enterprises.

The legislation was updated as part of the national project «Small and medium-sized businesses and support of individual business initiatives».

Original publication is on the RG website