How to close a sole proprietorship How to close an IP yourself - step by step instructions

This step-by-step instruction describes in detail the procedure for closing an IP. With its help, you will get the most complete picture of how to close an IP in 2019, as well as save your time searching for the necessary information.

1. Choose a way to close the IP

There are two ways to close an IP:

1. Self-closing IP. A fairly simple procedure, which consists in preparing a number of documents and performing some preparatory procedures (payment of taxes, fees, dismissal of employees, etc.). In addition, after going through all the steps of self-closing an IP, you will gain invaluable experience that can be useful to you more than once.
2. Paid closure of IP through a specialized company. Suitable for those who want to save their time and do not want to delve into the process of closing an IP on their own.

How much does it cost to close an IP

Close your IP

Paid to close an IP through a specialized company

The cost of paid IP closure depends on the region, but usually ranges from 1,000 to 5,000 rubles. The state duty for closing an IP, as a rule, is not included in this amount.

Note: the cost does not include the cost of taxes and fees, contributions, fines that may need to be paid, as well as the cost of settlement with employees (if any).

Comparison of independent and paid closure of IP

2. We make preparatory actions

Before its closure, according to the law, an individual entrepreneur must fulfill only the first two points, he can fulfill the rest after the termination of activities. But, in practice, the tax authorities often require all the actions described below to be performed at once.

Payment of taxes, fines and penalties in the IFTS

At this stage, you need to know exactly what amounts of taxes, fines and penalties you need to pay. Directly, the amount of taxes payable depends on the taxation system, on which the individual entrepreneur is located. You can get accurate information about the existing debt and overpayment of taxes, fees and fines by reconciling the calculations with the tax authority.

You can read more about individual entrepreneur taxes on this page.

Paying insurance premiums for yourself

Deregistration of cash registers

If by the time the IP is closed, you have not made the transition to the cash desks of a new model, you need to write an application to deregister, and on the day it is submitted to the tax authority, call the engineer of your TsTO, who must remove the fiscal report. Next, you need to submit the following documents to the IFTS (the list in different tax authorities may vary):

• application for deregistration;
• KKT passport;
• CCP registration card;
• journal of the cashier-operator;
• agreement with the CTO;
• withdrawn fiscal report;
• the passport;
• a copy of the latest reporting (declaration, balance sheet).

In the event that you work at an online checkout, to deregister you will need:

1. Fill out an application for deregistration of the online cash desk and, within one working day from the date of the occurrence of the circumstances that required the deregistration, send it to the Federal Tax Service (to any tax office in paper form, through the CCP personal account, or through the OFD). Additionally, you need to provide a report on the closing of the fiscal accumulator.
2. Get a card on deregistration of CCP. The term for the formation of the FTS card is 5 working days from the date of application. After another 5 working days, you will be sent an up-to-date card through the KKT office or OFD (if desired, you can request a paper copy from the tax office).

3. We prepare the necessary documents for closing the IP

Application for the closure of the IP

An application in the form P26001 is the main document required to terminate the activities of an individual entrepreneur (download the form). You can see detailed instructions for filling out, as well as sample applications for 2019, on this page.

Receipt for payment of state duty

In 2019, the state duty for closing an IP is 160 rubles. You can generate a receipt, as well as pay for it via the Internet using this service on the official website of the Federal Tax Service (section State duty for registration of individual entrepreneurs). There you can also print a receipt in paper form and pay for it at any convenient branch of Sberbank.

4. We check the collected documents

The final set of documents should include:

1. Application for closing the IP (form P26001) - 1 copy.
2. Original receipt of state duty with a mark of payment.

5. We submit documents to the tax office

The collected documents must be submitted to the tax authority that registered it (for example, in Moscow it is IFTS No. 46), and not to the one where it was registered (this does not apply to paying taxes and reporting). You can find out the address and contact details of your tax office using this service.

When self-submission of documents to the IFTS, an individual entrepreneur does not need to certify the signature on the application. However, when submitting documents through a trusted representative or sending documents by mail (always with a declared value and an inventory of the attachment), notarization is necessary.

6. We receive a document on the closure of the IP

After receiving the documents, the tax service is obliged to issue (send) a receipt for their receipt and close the IP within 5 days by issuing (sending) you the appropriate notice (form No. 2-4-Accounting) and the USRIP Record Sheet.

After the closure of the IP

Please note that:

• an individual is not exempt from paying taxes, fines, insurance premiums and other debts received during his activities as an individual entrepreneur;
• if any of the actions described above to prepare for the closure of the IP have not been completed, then after the closure they must be completed as soon as possible;
• if there is an IP seal, its destruction is not necessary;
• if necessary, IP can be opened again immediately after closing (for example, for a quick transition to another taxation system).

You are a sole trader. We have decided to close the IP, but do not know how best to do it. First, choose the liquidation method that is convenient for you: independently or through an intermediary (a company that provides paid services for registering and liquidating a business). Second, warn your employees of your intention to close the business (if you are the employer). Thirdly, get acquainted with the main nuances of liquidating a business this year.

How to close an IP in 2018

There are several reasons why businessmen close IP:

1. An entrepreneur opens an enterprise of a different organizational and legal form, for example, LLC or JSC.
2. The business is unprofitable, does not bring profit or income.
3. After paying taxes, the entrepreneur has little money left.
4. The businessman decided to continue the business illegally.
5. Personal reasons.

A package of documents for closing an IP

Collect the following documents for the tax office:

• Application (Form No. Р26001).
• The passport.
• A check for payment of the state duty (160 rubles) for the liquidation of the IP.
• A document on the submission of data to the Pension Fund (optional, since the fund provides this information to the tax service itself as part of an interdepartmental exchange).

Make copies of all documents that you submit to the tax office. They may be needed to confirm the facts of payment of taxes or the correctness of filling out the application. After submitting the documents, you should be given a receipt for receiving them.

Collect and correctly execute all the documents necessary for the liquidation of the IP - this will significantly speed up the procedure

Completing Form No. Р26001

If you intend to close an IP, carefully read the requirements of the Federal Tax Service for the liquidation process. It is possible to submit an application not only in person at the FTS inspection, where the IP was registered, but also remotely on the FTS website or the public services portal.

The application consists of one page. The information that an individual fills in contains data on the number of the Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs, your full name, tax number, contact details, position, last name and initials of the registrar, information about the notary who certified the authenticity of your signature.

This is what the application for the closure of IP looks like

If you personally applied to the tax service in order to close the IP, then by presenting your passport, you can sign the application in the presence of an employee of the service. If another person submits the application instead of you, or you send it by mail, have your signature certified by a notary.

Is confirmation of the absence of debt from public funds required?

The tax service closes the IP without requiring certificates from the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation and FFOMS on the absence of debt, but it is in your own interests to pay all taxes and contributions to the relevant state funds: the Pension Fund, the Social Insurance Fund, the Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund. If you did not pay the fee before closing the business, then do it no later than within fifteen calendar days from the date the business was closed.

Submission of reports at the closing of IP

When closing an IP, an entrepreneur is obliged to submit reports to the FIU, FFOMS, FSS. The procedure depends on the availability of employees, the taxation system, and the type of activity.

If you are an employer, reconcile debts with the PFR and FFOMS, submit all reports on your employees to these funds.

In the FSS, the entrepreneur submits a declaration. Its type depends on the taxation system. Each taxation system has its own rules and deadlines for filing a declaration and paying taxes when closing an IP (List of declarations with forms and deadlines when closing an IP).

Before closing an IP, carefully check whether you have paid taxes and insurance premiums

The period of storage of documents after the closure of IP

After the liquidation of entrepreneurship, an individual keeps the following documents: personnel, accounting, administrative and economic, administrative. Each type of documentation has its own retention period:

1. Primary accounting documentation - 4 years.
2. Book of income and expenses - 4 years.
3. Financial reporting - 5 years.
4. Administrative papers - 5 years.
5. Reporting on taxes paid and insurance contributions to funds - 6 years.

How to liquidate an individual entrepreneur if documents are lost

According to the current legislation (Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 439 of June 19, 2002), the presence of the following accounting documents for an individual entrepreneur is mandatory:

1. A document confirming the registration of an individual in the tax office.
2. Extract from the EGRIP.
3. Letter to Rosstat.
4. A document with the number and date of registration of the IP in the FIU.
5. IP certificate.

If one of the above documents is lost, the entrepreneur fixes the fact and the reason for the loss. Documents can be lost for various reasons: in case of fire, natural disaster, negligent handling, theft, etc. obtaining a certificate confirming the fact of the loss of documents.

If a businessman does not want to restore the lost documents, he closes the business: pays all contributions and taxes to the Pension Fund and the tax service, receives information from the inspector of the social protection fund about what documents to collect to close the IP. Often the package of documents includes:

• Application for termination of IP activity.
• Passport (original and copy).
• Receipts confirming the fact of payment of state duties.
• Information about the loss of documents.
• All IP documents in addition to the lost ones.

Consideration of an application to close a business in case of loss of documents takes approximately ten working days.

How to get a certificate of closure of IP

The tax service considers the application for closing the IP within five working days. If the application is filled out correctly and all documents are available, on the sixth day you will be issued a certificate of termination of the IP activity (form No. Р65001).

Do not forget that in the second paragraph of the application for the liquidation of an individual entrepreneur, you have the opportunity to indicate a convenient way to obtain a certificate: personally in the hands of the tax service, an authorized representative, by mail.

If all the documents necessary for closing are executed correctly, the state duty is paid - on the sixth working day you will be excluded from the register of entrepreneurs

Penalties and liability after the closure of IP

Closing an IP does not exempt from paying debts, if any: on accounts with counterparties, state funds, tax authorities, etc. Within four years from the date of liquidation of the IP, the tax service has the right to control you. Check the activities of the entrepreneur for the last three periods. For example, the audit was scheduled in 2018. The tax office will check your activity starting from January 1, 2014. Before the audit, the tax representative is obliged to notify you in writing of the date of the audit, the period of activity and the list of taxes to be audited.

What can an individual be fined for after the IP is closed? Here are the main reasons why the tax authorities may issue fines:

1. After the IP is closed, the businessman continues to conduct business illegally.
2. A businessman has misused a taxation system that is not suitable for his line of business.
3. The entrepreneur has not filed a tax return.

Video: step-by-step instructions for closing an IP

Closing an IP is a troublesome business. If you have time, take care of the liquidation process personally. This will help you understand all the nuances of the procedure, correctly submit reports and think about how and where you will store the IP documentation in the next 6-7 years in case your business is audited by the tax authority. If there is no time to close the business on your own, contact a company that does this professionally.

Registration as an individual entrepreneur allows you to legalize the income of your own labor quickly and without serious costs. But quite often, after working for some time, people decide to deregister as an entrepreneur. Usually this happens due to the unprofitability of activities or reorganization into the form of legal entities. faces. But regardless of the reasons for such a decision, the step-by-step instructions on how to close an IP in 2019 will be the same.

Procedure

At the first stage, it is necessary to decide how exactly to liquidate the IP - through an intermediary (law firm) or independently. The first method has a number of advantages:

• no need to waste your time;
• if a person decides that entrepreneurial activity does not suit him, he will not have to delve into the legal intricacies of the process of liquidating an individual entrepreneur, knowledge of which will no longer be useful in the future;
• the entire "severity" of mistakes made during the closure of the IP, the intermediary company takes over.

In the case of self-closing an IP, the advantages can be considered:

• small expenses equal to the state duty for closing an IP (in 2019, 160 rubles) and the cost of paying for notary services (if documents for liquidation are submitted through a representative or by mail);
• no leakage of personal data to unauthorized persons.

Separately, we note that when deregistering an individual entrepreneur through the website of the tax service (remotely), it is not necessary to pay a fee from 2019. On the other hand, this option will be beneficial only when the entrepreneur already has a digital signature. Otherwise, the purchase of a signature will cost 1,500 - 3,000 rubles, i.e. it is not advisable to purchase it for only one operation.

How much does it cost to close an IP

Let's compare the possible average costs of liquidating an individual entrepreneur personally and with the help of a law firm.

Preparing for liquidation

Many entrepreneurs begin the liquidation process immediately by filling out and submitting an application to the Federal Tax Service, which makes a serious mistake. In this case, it is better not to rush and prepare the IP for closure in advance so that later the tax and other services do not have questions and claims, supported by impressive fines.

According to the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation, before the liquidation of an individual entrepreneur, it is imperative to dissolve the state.

Two questions should be considered here, the first is how to close an individual entrepreneur with employees. In this case, you must sequentially perform the following steps:

• two months before the actual liquidation, warn all employees in writing about the upcoming dismissal (this is not just a requirement of the law, but also the protection of the individual entrepreneur from possible claims and lawsuits from former employees);
• send a written notice to the employment service 14 days before the liquidation;
• pay off wages to employees or, by mutual agreement, re-register debts to them in a different form;
• transfer contributions to the funds for employees and pay personal income tax for them, submit relevant reports;
• at the last stage, it is necessary to deregister with the social insurance fund.

And the second question is how to close an IP without employees. It is much easier to solve, since the entrepreneur does not have obligations to other persons, and he pays contributions to the funds only for himself.

An important detail - the legislation allows you to pay insurance premiums for yourself after the actual closure of the IP, but no later than 15 days from the date of making the corresponding entry in the EGRIP. For this reason, the tax authorities' refusal to deregister an individual entrepreneur in the presence of a corresponding debt is unlawful and can be appealed in court or a higher instance of the Federal Tax Service.

On the other hand, if an entrepreneur has not been active for several months (does not accept payments from counterparties), and the tax service illegally requires payment of outstanding insurance premiums before liquidating an individual entrepreneur, it would be quite reasonable to comply with the requirements to save time.

If payment for services rendered and goods sold is received even at the stage of the liquidation procedure launched, it will be problematic to fulfill such requirements of the Federal Tax Service, moreover, they can lead to fines if the previously calculated amount of contributions turns out to be incorrect.

What else is wise to do before applying

First, it is desirable to submit or at least fully prepare a tax return. The fact is that the specific deadline for submitting this document in the event of liquidation of an individual entrepreneur is not prescribed by law, therefore, different departments of the Federal Tax Service may put forward their own requirements. Here are the possible interpretations:

• before liquidation;
• within 5 working days after the closure of the IP;
• at the usual times.

In order not to face a controversial situation, it is better to prepare for it in advance.

Secondly, if the entrepreneur no longer accepts payments and has already paid off all debts to contractors, employees, funds and tax authorities, you can close the current account. Despite the fact that since 2014, the former individual entrepreneur is not required to notify the Federal Tax Service of closing an account (the service should receive data automatically), there are situations when information is “lost” due to failures.

And, thirdly, it is necessary to deregister cash registers.

How to close a sole proprietorship with debts

The biggest difficulties in the process of liquidating an individual entrepreneur arise if the entrepreneur has outstanding debts, fines and penalties. In general, it should be noted that the mere fact of having a debt is not an obstacle to closing an IP, but the Federal Tax Service quite often illegally requires payment of all debts and only after that “sets in motion” the application for liquidation.

We repeat, such requirements are contrary to the law, so you can insist on accepting the application and write appeals to a higher authority.

As for the legal side of the issue in the context of interaction between individual entrepreneurs and creditors, here it is necessary to consider several typical situations.

There is a debt on contributions to the pension fund

Since since 2017, payments to the PFR and the MHIF have been administered by the Federal Tax Service, the problem should be resolved directly with the tax service, i.e. no documents and certificates from the pension fund are required.

There is a debt to the FSS

The debt to the social insurance fund is not an obstacle to the liquidation of the IP, moreover, after making a “liquidation” entry in the EGRIP, the data will automatically go to the FSS, and all debts of the IP will be transferred to the physical. face.

Debt owed to employees and creditors

As noted above, an entrepreneur can agree in advance with employees to whom a debt has arisen and re-register it for himself as an individual. face. We strongly recommend that this problem be resolved without conflicts until the liquidation of the IP, since the debts will in any case be transferred to the individual, only without prior agreement they will be collected through the courts.

Issues with counterparties are resolved according to a similar principle - the former entrepreneur must repay obligations in any case, unless, of course, the creditor himself wrote off his debt and did not go to court for the expiration of the limitation period.

Settlement of debts to the Federal Tax Service

This is the most difficult case. As already noted, the main problem here is that the tax service may illegally refuse to liquidate an individual entrepreneur if the entrepreneur has tax arrears. Of course, since such a requirement only aggravates the position of the taxpayer, it is necessary to seek approval of the application, the last resort is to go to court.

Further, after the liquidation, the former individual entrepreneur will still have to pay off the debts, but already as an individual, while in the event of their systematic non-payment, the consequences for the failed entrepreneur may be as follows:

• if all the submitted declarations were correct, and the debt arose due to objective circumstances, the bankruptcy procedure of an individual may be launched;
• if the Federal Tax Service has revealed gross violations and additionally charged large amounts that the person is not able to pay, there is a high probability of initiating a criminal case, since there is a fact of tax evasion.

• IP with any debts can be liquidated;
• after the IP is closed, the debt passes to an individual;
• a person has the right to declare himself bankrupt, but here you need to remember that a penalty can be imposed on personal property.

What documents are needed

After completing the above steps, you can contact the Federal Tax Service at the place of registration of the IP. The first step is to go to the website of the Federal Tax Service and generate a receipt for payment of the state fee.

Two options are possible here - the usual one and for filing an application at the multifunctional center. This means that you need to immediately decide how exactly to close the IP - through the tax or the MFC. We print out the generated receipt and pay at the branch of Sberbank. We save the document, since it will need to be given to the Federal Tax Service with the bank's mark, moreover, just in case, it is advisable to make a photocopy.

Then we fill out an application for closing the IP ().

If an entrepreneur submits a package of documents independently at the place of registration of an IP, only sections 1 and 2 of the application need to be filled out. Important - the signature on the application is put personally in the presence of the inspector of the Federal Tax Service.

If the application is sent by mail or through a representative, you must sign strictly in the presence of a notary, while in the fourth block of the form you will need to indicate its TIN.

No other mandatory documents are required to close an IP. As already noted, requests from the Federal Tax Service for the provision of various certificates from the FSS and other structures are illegal.

How best to apply

There are four ways to apply for liquidation of an individual entrepreneur:

1. Personally at the tax office.
2. By mail or through a trusted person.
3. Online on the website of the tax service.
4. at the MFC.

The first option can be considered the most “conflicting”, since it is during a personal appeal that the Federal Tax Service often makes unreasonable demands on the applicant. But if you look from the other side, then a visit to the tax office practically guarantees the absence of claims in the future, since all issues can be resolved directly with the inspector.

The mail option is suitable mainly for those entrepreneurs who live in another city (not at the place of registration of the IP). Filing an application through a proxy is relevant for employed people and individuals applying to specialized law firms.

To close an IP online through a tax office, you will need to enter your personal account on the website of the Federal Tax Service.

There, the entrepreneur must follow the following steps:

1. Fill out a standard application.
2. Select the method of receiving documents and specify contacts.
3. Sign the application with an electronic signature.
4. Upload a scanned image of a passport spread to the site.
5. Confirm sending.

Once again, we pay attention to an important detail - you can use this method only if there is an electronic signature.

If everything is done correctly and the Federal Tax Service does not detect errors, you can get the USRIP record sheet in most regions on the 6th day. In case of refusal, the applicant will also be issued an official document with the reason for such a decision.

People also often ask how to close an IP through the State Services. The answer is that this cannot be done directly, since through this portal you can only log in to your personal account of the Federal Tax Service.

You can close an IP through the MFC in the same way as with direct contact with the Federal Tax Service. The main thing to remember is that before contacting the multifunctional center on the website of the Federal Tax Service, you need to select a “special” receipt for paying the state duty. The remaining steps remain the same - fill out an application in the form P26001, present a receipt for payment of the fee and put a signature.

Is it possible to suspend the activities of the IP without closing it

In the activities of an entrepreneur, a situation may arise when, due to seasonal factors, things are not going too well or personal circumstances force a temporary suspension of work. The logical solution in such a situation seems to be to temporarily suspend the activities of the IP, without closing it until the negative factors lose their force. Therefore, it is necessary to understand what the legislation “thinks” about this.

Unfortunately, in Russian laws there is no such legal concept as a temporary suspension of the work of an individual entrepreneur, i.e. If an entrepreneur wants to freeze business processes, he can choose one of two scenarios:

• liquidate the IP, and later re-register;
• reduce staff and close operating units (shops, service points, etc.), while he will be in the status of an individual entrepreneur and continue to pay all mandatory fixed contributions.

There is no third option. If a person simply “leaves” his individual entrepreneur, after some time the state authorities will demand to pay the accrued mandatory contributions and impose fines both for late payments and for other violations, for example, failure to submit reports on time.

In contact with

When most entrepreneurs do not think about the fact that for some reason they may have to do their business. It rarely happens when registration is made for a short period of time and with plans for an early liquidation.

As a result, a fairly simple procedure for terminating the activity of individual entrepreneurship sometimes causes some difficulties.

self-closing

In the event that the individual entrepreneur does not have large debts or other obligations, the procedure will take place according to the simplest algorithm and can be performed on its own, without resorting to intermediary companies for help. In this case, it is required to prepare several documents and take them to the territorial tax authority.

You will need the following:

• Application for closure in the form P26001. This form can be filled out on a computer and printed out, or you can fill it out by hand. It should be filled out carefully, in case of an error, rewrite it, and not correct it. Corrected documents will not be accepted.
• Certificate from the Pension Fund. Recently, this document has not been included in the list of mandatory ones, since the tax authorities themselves may request the necessary information. However, often it is still required, and to save time it makes sense to stock up on it in advance.
• Paid state fee. A receipt confirming payment is provided.
• The passport the citizen in whose name the business is registered.

After filing these papers, the tax office must close the IP within five days and issue a document confirming this fact.

How much is the stamp duty?

The cost of the state duty for closing an IP in 2018 is only 160 rubles. It is customary to attach the receipt received after payment to the application in the form P26001 using a stapler or simply with a paper clip in the upper left corner of the sheet.

You can pay the fee through an online bank, ATMs, bank branches, and even through some Qiwi terminals. There is usually no fee for payment.

Sending documents by mail or through a representative

If it is not possible to independently submit documentation to the tax office, this can be done through a person who will be the legal representative of the individual entrepreneur. In this case, you will have to spend money on a notary, since documents will not be accepted without certification from a third party.

If there is no person who could act as a legal representative, the papers can be sent to the tax authority and by mail. In such a situation, the cost of sending documents should be added to the cost of the state duty. The closing period also increases by the time of sending and receiving papers.

Calculation of the final cost of the procedure

So, how much will it cost to terminate activities in various situations:

• Self-closing is practically free and will cost only at 160 rubles to pay state taxes.
• Liquidation of IP without personal presence costs on average up to 3000 rubles- the costs of a representative, forwarding and / or certification of documents by a notary are added.
• If there is no desire at all to collect, fill out and submit all the documentation on your own, you can turn to intermediary companies. This is the most expensive option, since the payment for the services of such an organization can be many times higher than the required mandatory costs. The price for closing a turnkey IP starts on average from 3-4 thousand rubles for entrepreneurs without debts and those who did not conduct business, up to 20-30 thousand or more in difficult situations and in the presence of debts to several persons / organizations.

You can learn the general procedure for the procedure in question from the following video:

Closing a sole proprietorship with debts

In the course of activities, an individual entrepreneur may have debts to various companies. Debts may be before:

• tax authorities;
• banks and other creditors;
• employees (unpaid salaries and so on);

At the moment, the liquidation of an individual entrepreneur is not possible only if there is a debt to the tax authorities. All other debts can be returned even after the status of an individual entrepreneur is closed.

Before closing, it is required to file a tax return for the entire period of its activity. Even if the activity was not carried out, the procedure still takes place only after the submission of reports. And as already mentioned, all taxes must be paid, or the IP will not be closed.

If the declarations were submitted and taxes were paid on time, to initiate the procedure, you need to provide reports only for the last tax period, and not for the entire period. If the report has not been submitted by the time the application is submitted to the tax authority, a five-day period is given for its submission.

When closing an IP with debts, it should be borne in mind that all debts will remain, and the individual entrepreneur will have to fulfill his obligations.