Many documents used by modern commercial enterprises indicate OKVED codes. What is their purpose? How does the company owner choose the correct code according to the appropriate classifier?
What is the purpose of OKVED?
The abbreviation OKVED, widespread, and therefore known not only to narrow specialists, is what is it? This term stands for All-Russian Classifier by type of economic activity. In some cases, it is also called the "classifier of codes" of economic activity, which, in principle, is quite logical, since in practice the acronym OKVED is almost always used in the context of economic activity codes.
Thus, the classifier of OKVED includes a list of codes of economic activity of various enterprises that produce goods and services. In fact, this is an official document in the status of a legal act, which must be used by enterprises entering into various legal relations. Which ones?
Legal relations using OKVED
So, we know the decoding of the acronym OKVED. What is this classifier from a practical point of view? As we noted above, it includes codes corresponding to one or another variety of goods and services produced by Russian enterprises. These codes may be useful to companies, in particular:
- directly upon registration with the Federal Tax Service;
- in the process of generating various types of reporting - for example, statistical, accounting.
The company may consider several codes. Among them, as a rule, there is a relatively small number - sometimes even only 1, the main ones, the rest are additional. It will be useful to consider these two ways of using OKVED in more detail.
OKVED codes when registering an enterprise in the Federal Tax Service
So, perhaps the most important type of legal relationship, within which the OKVED classifier can be useful, with a breakdown by activity, in particular, is the registration of a company in the Federal Tax Service as an economic entity. This procedure is mandatory from the point of view of the beginning of the conduct of legal business by the founders of the enterprise.
To register with the Federal Tax Service, the owner of the enterprise submits documents to the agency in the established forms, in which it is necessary to indicate the OKVED code corresponding to the company’s activities. If this or that code is indicated incorrectly, that is, the actual direction of the economic activity of the enterprise does not correspond to it, this may provoke increased attention to the work of the company during inspections, sometimes - the Federal Tax Service refuses to register the enterprise.
In addition, when interacting with the FSS, OKVED can be useful. The law may provide for legal relations between private companies and this agency on insurance issues, within the framework of which it is supposed to transfer documents to the FSS with codes of economic activity of the enterprise.
OKVED codes in reporting
The next legal relationship, within the framework of which codes that reflect OKVED activities are reflected is the formation of various types of statements by the enterprise. In particular, statistical or accounting.
The fact is that in documents that are generated as part of the relevant types of reporting, it is often required to indicate these codes in order to accurately identify the economic profile of the enterprise.
OKVED code structure
So, now we know why the OKVED classifier is needed, what kind of source it is, what are the practical nuances of its application. It will be useful to consider in which structure the code can be represented by the corresponding classifier. The principles for the formation of relevant indicators are determined by the competent authority - the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia. As some experts note, the Russian types of OKVED were based on the European classification and are largely similar to them in terms of determining the lists of economic activities. In particular, the first 4 digits in the Russian OKVED for a specific type of activity generally correspond to those adopted in the international classification.
In turn, other figures reveal the features of a particular segment of the economy in Russia. For example, if we have the OKVED code 01.13.22, its decryption in terms of structure will be as follows.
The first 2 digits - 01 - indicate the scope of the enterprise. In this case, agriculture. The third digit - 1 - indicates the fact that the business entity carries out activities in the field of crop production. The remaining numbers indicate a specific subgroup and type of plants that the company grows - in this case, nuts. They really correspond to the marked code.
Note that these codes correspond to OKVED according to document OK 029-2001. What it is, we will now consider.
If the company has a question "which OKVED should be indicated in the documents within the framework of this or that legal relationship", then it is very important to choose the correct classifier of the corresponding codes. The fact is that in Russia there are actually three of them now. How should one choose the correct source of codes?
Which classifier to use?
Indeed, now in the Russian Federation there are 3 OKVED classifiers. What is this feature of legislative regulation?
The first classifier of the corresponding type was introduced in the Russian Federation in the early 2000s. This is a document of OK 029-2001. For a long time, it was he who was used as a data source during the registration of enterprises and the execution of documents in the framework of other legal relations.
Later, another classifier of types of economic activities was introduced - OK 029-2007, however, its application is carried out within the framework of a rather narrow range of legal relations, which are mainly associated with the collection of various types of statistical data by the competent state authorities. In general, it is not used by commercial enterprises.
Subsequently, another classifier was introduced - OK 029-2014, while the first one was not canceled. For some time, the procedure for their application was superficially regulated by law. The authorities responsible for the tax reporting of enterprises, as the most important legal relationship with the participation of business entities, developed a norm according to which those companies that registered with the Federal Tax Service before the OK 029-2014 document was put into circulation can take no action to re-register their codes OKVED.
Use of OKVED: normative regulation
In turn, when entering new information about enterprises in state registers, a new classifier must already be used. In a letter dated 07/11/2016, the Federal Tax Service provided relevant clarifications.
Thus, the very first classifier is not used in practice, although the data transmitted to the Federal Tax Service during its application may be reflected in state registers. If necessary, as can be traced by studying various legal acts from the Federal Tax Service, the relevant department can independently transfer the economic activity codes of the old format to newer ones. Document OK 029-2007 is rarely used. Source OK 029-2014 is now used as the main one. Therefore, when registering a company, as well as when changing information about OKVED in the manner that we will consider later in the article, it is necessary to use codes from the corresponding source.
It is recommended when choosing OKVED codes - the services, products manufactured by the enterprise can be very different, and its founder does not always manage to find the correct match for them in the classifier under consideration, - seek advice from the Federal Tax Service specialists directly at the registration of the enterprise. Or to competent specialists in specialized firms.
In this connection, the choice of the type of activity of the company for OKVED necessary for the company?
Significance of OKVED: economic classification
First of all, this is due to the fact that the competent state bodies, primarily responsible for collecting statistics on economic entities, assign a specific number to the company in other classifiers. For example, in OKPO. This operation is carried out by authorities in order to determine the industry specialization of the enterprise.
OKVED as an indicator of business legality
The next nuance: the company needs to correctly indicate the type of activity it is necessary for the company to ensure that state bodies can clearly determine that it is engaged in a legal activity. The fact is that some of the types of management cannot be carried out by private firms. If you accidentally specify the OKVED code for one of those related to these areas of activity, the Federal Tax Service may refuse to register a business.
OKVED and capital
Another reason for the need for the OKVED to be correctly reflected in official documents is that, within the framework of certain types of activity, fairly high indicators can be established by law for the minimum authorized capital of an enterprise. What does it mean? First of all, if the founder of the company indicates a code corresponding to a similar type of activity and does not provide a sufficient amount of the authorized capital, then the regulatory authorities can apply various sanctions to it.
OKVED and contributions to the budget
OKVED activities can be classified in different ways based on statutory requirements for firms to pay contributions to state funds and to the budget. Therefore, in order to avoid an increase in financial obligations to authorities, it is necessary to fix the correct codes in accordance with the classifier of economic activity in official documents.
How to find the right code?
Let us consider how, if other options are not available, we can search for the optimal code of economic activity in the current classifiers. We agree that we have at our disposal - document OK 029-2014.
First of all, you need to determine the main activity of the company based on what it represents in essence. In accordance with this parameter, we are looking for a section corresponding to it. In the classifier OKVED decryption of codes begins with Latin letters. For example, the letter F corresponds to such a type of economic activity as "Construction". There are 3 possible groups in this section: 41 - buildings, 41 - engineering structures, 43 - construction works.
We agree that our company erects buildings, so we select group 41. It, in turn, has 2 subgroups: 41.1 - development of projects, 41.2 - construction. Since we are engaged in the second type of activity, we select the appropriate subgroup. As part of it, there is 1 specific type of activity with the OKVED code 41.20 - construction. We indicate it during the registration of the company, as well as other documents in the framework of those legal relations in which the company will participate.
How to change the code?
Situations may arise in which an organization will need to change the economic activity code previously registered with the Federal Tax Service. This problem can be solved quite simply. You must again contact the Federal Tax Service and submit the application in the prescribed form, which should indicate the new OKVED codes. To transfer the corresponding application to the department, the owner of the company will also need to present:
- passport;
- a fresh extract from the registry - which is issued no earlier than 1 month before contacting the Federal Tax Service on the issue of changing codes of economic activity;
- certificate of OGRN;
- constituent documents;
- official decision on the adjustment of activities.
The last 2 documents the company owner will need to prepare in confirmation of OKVED, information about which is adjusted in the state registry. Thus, changes to the relevant sources must be made in advance, before contacting the Federal Tax Service on the issue in question. Also, when making adjustments to state registers, it is necessary to pay a state fee. That is, to the documents listed above, you will also need to add a receipt on its payment.
The choice of codes of economic activity: nuances
What nuances can you pay attention to when working with the codes in question?
So, we note that in the legislation of the Russian Federation there are no prohibitions on indicating the types of economic activity that the company is not actually going to engage in. However, it is desirable to indicate them as additional, rather than basic.
When classifying codes for primary and secondary, it is recommended first of all to take into account the amount of income in a particular area of activity. OKVED, corresponding to the most profitable, should be fixed as the main one.
When using the appropriate codes, it is also desirable to ensure their uniformity as indicated in various documents. For example, if in one reporting source one OKVED is recorded, then in the other that is sent to the same department, a similar one should be reflected.
An individual entrepreneur needs to choose the activity that will bring the greatest income. It is she who will become the main one according to OKVED. In addition, you can select additional codes. If problems arise during the determination process, you can use the classifier application (it contains detailed descriptions of all types of activities). It is worth paying attention that licensing is provided for some types of activities.