A number of organizations carry out operations for the acquisition and sale of goods without posting them to their own warehouse: the goods are delivered in transit from the supplier’s warehouse to the final buyer’s warehouse. Let's consider the features of documentation, accounting and taxation of such transactions in the field of wholesale trade.

Transit trade represents two transactions independent of each other: a trading company enters into a contract for the purchase and sale of goods with a supplier (manufacturer, importer, etc.), on the basis of which it undertakes to pay for the purchased goods, and the supplier undertakes to ship the goods to that warehouse , which the trade organization will indicate, and a separate agreement with the buyer of the goods, within the framework of which he undertakes to supply the goods for a fee. In this case, the trading company will act as the buyer of the goods in the first contract, and as its seller in the second.

The peculiarity of transit trade agreements is as follows.

Under the first agreement, the trading organization transfers funds to its supplier for the goods. Their consignee under the contract is the final buyer. This method of trade is possible due to Art. 509 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, since the supply of goods can be carried out by the supplier, including through their shipment (transfer) to the person specified in the contract as the recipient.

In this case, the goods do not actually arrive at the warehouse of the trading organization (in practice, the transit supplier may not even have a warehouse, because for the deliveries in question its presence is not required). Despite this, the organization acquires ownership of the goods supplied.

Under the second agreement, the transit supplier receives money from the buyer for the goods transferred. The shipper is the supplier of the goods under the first contract, and not the wholesale trade organization.

In the case under consideration, when purchasing goods, the supplier’s obligation to transfer the goods to the buyer (in this case, the “transit” seller) is considered fulfilled at the moment the goods are handed over to the carrier for delivery to the final buyer (clause 2 of Article 458, clause 5 of Article 454, clause 1 Art. 509 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

When selling goods, the obligation of the organization - the “transit” seller to transfer the goods to the final buyer is considered fulfilled at the moment the goods are delivered to the buyer, since the purchase and sale agreement provides for the seller’s obligation to deliver the goods (clause 1 of Article 458 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

Determining the moment of transfer of ownership of goods

This will allow the parties to the transaction to distribute between themselves the risks of loss of property, and the trade organization will provide the opportunity to correctly determine the date of sale of goods in accounting and tax when applying the accrual method.

As a general rule, ownership of goods arises from the moment of their transfer (Clause 1, Article 223 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). The transfer of goods is their delivery. In the case under consideration, the organization cannot directly transfer (hand over) the goods to the buyer, because it does not physically receive them at its warehouse.

If the goods cannot be transferred personally (handed over) to the recipient, the moment of their transfer is the delivery of the goods to the first carrier for delivery to the recipient (Clause 1 of Article 224 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). During transit trade, the organization does not transfer the goods to the carrier. This is done by the supplier when sending goods from its warehouse. Then the moment of transfer of goods to the first carrier can be confirmed by a notification from the supplier about their transfer to the carrier with shipping documents attached to it.

Depending on the moment of transfer of ownership between the parties to the contracts, the date of receipt of income by the trading organization may be determined differently.

When ownership of goods is transferred to a trading organization at the time of their shipment from the supplier’s warehouse, and to the final buyer at the time the goods arrive at his warehouse, the organization’s income in accounting and tax accounting when applying the accrual method will appear on the date of transfer of goods upon their delivery to buyer's warehouse.

If ownership of goods passes to a trading organization at the time of their shipment from the supplier’s warehouse (for example, in the presence of a representative of the organization) and is immediately transferred to the final buyer (through the carrier or the final buyer’s representative at the supplier’s warehouse), then income will appear immediately after the transfer of the goods to the carrier.

If the contract stipulates that the delivered goods are received by the final buyer for safekeeping, and ownership rights are transferred to him only after full payment, then the income of the trading organization will be considered received after the final payment of the final buyer.

Preparation of primary documents

• Packing list

In the situation under consideration, the organization—the “transit” seller—has concluded two contracts: with the supplier for the purchase of goods and with the buyer for the sale of goods. Consequently, as a result of these transactions, the organization must have two invoices, while the original supplier and the final buyer will have copies of different invoices. In this case, the “transit” seller does not receive the goods at his warehouse and does not release them to the buyer, therefore, he is neither a consignee nor a consignor.

Since the invoice confirms the transfer of ownership, in the invoice issued to the buyer, the trade organization must reflect the dispatch of goods to the buyer in transit. This goal is achieved by correctly filling out the details of each of the invoices.

The invoice issued by the transit supplier must indicate:

• in the lines “Supplier” and “Consignor” - the supplier organization;
• in the line “Payer” - the organization - the “transit” seller;
• in the line “Consignee” - the final buyer;
• in the line “Base” the details of the supply agreement concluded between the supplier and the “transit” trade organization are indicated;
• in the line “Cargo released” the signature of the responsible person of the supplier is placed;
• The lines “Cargo accepted” and “Cargo received by consignee” are not filled in.

The supplier draws up the specified invoice in two copies on the date of shipment of the goods to the address of the consignee (final buyer).

Before the goods are shipped, the organization - the “transit” seller hands over to the supplier its invoice for the buyer, which indicates the sale price of the goods (and not the price at which the goods were purchased from the supplier).

This invoice is also drawn up in two copies and is handed over by the supplier to the carrier as accompanying documents.

This invoice can be issued in the following order:

• in the line “Consignor” the details of the original supplier are indicated;
• in the line “Supplier” - “transit” seller;
• in the lines “Consignee” and “Payer” - the name of the final buyer;
• in the line “Base” - details of the supply agreement concluded between the trade organization and the buyer of the goods;
• the line “Cargo released” is not filled in;
• the line “Cargo accepted” is filled in by the carrier’s representative (note that in practice it is also possible not to fill in this detail if the carrier refuses to fill it out);
• in the line “The cargo was received by the consignee” the signature of the buyer’s responsible person is placed.

During transit trade, when the trade organization and the supplier do not meet during the fulfillment of contractual obligations and the goods do not arrive at its warehouse, primary documents (contracts, delivery notes, invoices, etc.) are sent by mail or sent by courier. The same should be done if the transit supplier does not have the opportunity to transfer shipping documents to the buyer through the carrier. They should also be sent to the buyer by mail or sent by courier.

• Waybill

Depending on the type of transport used for delivery, these will be:

• waybills - for delivery by road;
• railway transport invoices - for delivery by rail;
• port bill of lading - for sea transportation;
• sender's waybill and cargo waybill - for delivery by air.

This is also necessary for the timely reflection of transactions for the registration of transit goods, depending on the conditions for the transfer of ownership rights enshrined in the contracts of the trade organization with the supplier and the buyer.

To account for the movement of inventories and payments for their transportation by road, currently you can use a consignment note (approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of April 15, 2011 No. 272) or a consignment note f. No. 1-T (approved by Resolution of the State Statistics Committee of Russia dated November 28, 1997 No. 78). Both of them confirm the conclusion of a contract for the carriage of goods (Clause 1, Article 8 of the Federal Law of 08.11.07 No. 259-FZ “Charter of Road Transport and Urban Ground Electric Transport”).

Typically, the invoice is issued in four copies, the first remains with the shipper (in the case of transit trade, he is the supplier of the goods) and is intended for writing off the goods.

The second, third and fourth copies, certified by the signatures and seals (stamps) of the shipper and the signature of the driver, are handed to the driver. The second copy is handed over by the driver to the consignee (the final buyer), it is intended for the receipt of goods.

The third and fourth copies, certified by the signatures and seals (stamps) of the consignee, are handed over to the organization that owns the vehicle.

The organization that owns the vehicle attaches the third copy, which serves as the basis for calculations, to the invoice for transportation and sends it to the customer of the vehicle.

If, under the terms of supply contracts, the delivery of goods is carried out at the expense of a trade organization, it is also the customer and payer under the contract for the carriage of goods. In this case, when filling out the invoice, in the “Payer” line, indicate the full name of the organization carrying out transit transactions, its address, and bank details.

The fourth copy of the invoice is attached to the waybill and serves as the basis for accounting for transport work and calculating the driver’s wages in a motor transport enterprise.

As you can see, each of the four participants in the transaction will have one original invoice on hand.

If the delivery of goods in accordance with concluded supply agreements is carried out not by a wholesale seller, but, for example, by a supplier of goods or by the final buyer, then the name of the customer organization will be indicated in the “Payer” line.

In this case, the trade organization must have a copy of one of these invoices.

It is its presence that confirms the fact that the supplier has shipped goods to the final buyer.

Accounting

Instructions for using the Chart of Accounts provide for the posting of goods on account 41 “Goods” when they arrive at the warehouse. Since in this case the goods do not arrive at the warehouse, their recording in account 41 may be considered incorrect.

Alternative accounting of transit goods is possible on account 45 “Goods shipped”. Instructions for using the Chart of Accounts recommend using this account to summarize information on the availability and movement of shipped products (goods), the proceeds from the sale of which cannot be recognized in accounting for a certain time.

Reflection of transactions for the acquisition and sale of transit goods when using a particular account is accompanied by the following entries: Dt sch. 41“Goods” (45 “Goods shipped”),
K-t sch. 60“Settlements with suppliers and contractors” are taken into account goods shipped by the supplier to the buyer;

Dt sch. 19“Value added tax on acquired assets”,
K-t sch. 60“Settlements with suppliers and contractors” the amount of VAT presented by the supplier of goods is highlighted;

Dt sch. 68“Calculations for taxes and fees”, subaccount. "VAT calculations"
K-t sch. 19“Value added tax on acquired values” the presented amount of VAT is accepted for deduction;

Dt sch. 62
K-t sch. 90“Sales”, subaccount 1 “Revenue” reflects the buyer’s debt for goods in transit;

Dt sch. 90“Sales”, subaccount. 2 “Cost of sales”,
K-t sch. 41“Goods” (45 “Goods shipped”), the purchase price of transit goods is written off;

Dt sch. 90“Sales”, subaccount. 3 "VAT",
K-t sch. 68“Calculations for taxes and fees”, subaccount. “Calculations for VAT” the amount of VAT is calculated on the proceeds from the sale of goods in transit.

Taxation

• Value added tax

When delivering goods in transit, the trade organization does not transfer the goods to the buyer and does not hand them over to the carrier. This is done by the shipper. In this case, the date of shipment should be considered the date of the first drawing up of the primary document, issued either to the carrier for delivery of goods to the buyer, or to the buyer (letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated 06.22.10 No. 03-07-09/37, 04.18.07 No. 03- 07-11/110).

For the transit supplier, the date of shipment will be the date indicated on the invoice, which he will issue in the name of the buyer.

The right to deduct the amount of VAT presented by the supplier of goods arises when the following conditions are met: the goods are purchased for resale, there is an invoice from the supplier, the goods are accepted for accounting and the relevant primary documents are available.

The term “acquisition” in civil legislation in relation to property means the acquisition of ownership of the latter (Articles 212, 218 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). Thus, when purchasing (purchasing) goods, the VAT presented by the supplier can be deducted by a trade organization when the goods become its property, are accepted for registration, and the relevant primary documents and an invoice issued by the supplier are available.

Acceptance of goods for registration means that goods purchased from a supplier and intended for resale are reflected in the accounting of a trading organization as a debit to account 41 or 45.

The trading organization should check how the supplier of goods filled out the invoice issued in its name.

On lines 2-2b The “Seller” invoice as the seller of goods must indicate the details of the supplier, his address, taxpayer identification number (TIN) and reason for registration code (RPC).

On line 3“Consignor and his address” also displays the supplier’s details.

On line 4“Consignee and his address”, the supplier must indicate the details of the final buyer of the goods.

On lines 6-6b The trade organization, its address, Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and checkpoint are listed as the buyer.

When issuing an invoice in the name of the final buyer, the trade organization must also reflect the features associated with the transit sale of goods.

On the lines of the invoice relating to the seller of goods, she must enter her own details, on the line “Consignor and his address” - indicate the details of her supplier, and fill out the lines relating to the buyer and consignee in the name of the final buyer of the goods.

The trade organization issues this invoice no later than five calendar days from the date of shipment of the goods, and registers it in the sales book on the day of such shipment.

• Income tax

If an organization accounts for income and expenses using the cash method, then the moment of occurrence of income is the day of receipt of funds to the current account or to the organization's cash desk, the date of transfer of property as payment for goods and other methods of repaying debt (clause 2 of Article 273 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). In this case, income recognizes not only payment for previously delivered goods, but also advances received from the buyer for future deliveries.

When selling goods, expenses associated with their acquisition and sale are determined taking into account Art. 320 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which determines the procedure for allocating expenses for trading operations for taxpayers using the accrual method. The current month's expenses in a trade organization are divided into direct and indirect. Direct expenses include: the cost of purchasing goods sold in a given reporting (tax) period; transportation costs for delivery of purchased goods to the warehouse of the taxpayer-buyer, if they are not included in the purchase price of these goods. The cost of purchasing goods shipped but not sold at the end of the month is not included by the taxpayer in expenses associated with production and sales until the moment of their sale. The amount of direct expenses in terms of transportation costs related to the balance of unsold goods is determined by the average percentage for the current month, taking into account the carryover balance at the beginning of the month. All other expenses incurred in the current month are considered indirect in the trading organization.

In other words, there is no need to distribute them, since they completely reduce the income from sales of the current month.

Accounting for expenses for payment for services of a transport organization

• Accounting

Option 1. Expenses for payment for the services of a transport organization are considered as expenses associated with the purchase of goods and are included in their cost (clause 6 of PBU 5/01).

Option 2. Expenses for payment for the services of a transport organization are considered as expenses associated with the purchase of goods, but are not included in their cost, but are subject to distribution between the goods sold and their balance at the end of each month according to the methodology set out in Art. 320 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Option 3. Expenses for payment for the services of a transport organization are considered as expenses associated with the sale of goods and are fully included in the expenses of the current period (clause 9 of PBU 10/99).

Most trade organizations account for the costs of transporting goods using the second or third option.

To account for these expenses, they open a separate sub-account to account 44 “Sales expenses”. In case of partial write-off, expenses are subject to distribution between the goods sold and the balance of goods at the end of each month.

The chosen solution regarding the procedure for accounting for transportation costs should be recorded in the accounting policy of the organization.

If the supply agreement provides for the delivery of goods by a trading organization at the expense of the buyer, in this case account 76 “Settlements with various debtors and creditors” is used.

Records are made: Dt sch. 76“Settlements with various debtors and creditors”,
K-t sch. 60“Settlements with suppliers and contractors” reflects the debt for the transportation of goods;

Dt sch. 60"Settlements with suppliers and contractors"
K-t sch. 51“Current accounts” lists the funds of the transport organization;

Dt sch. 62"Settlements with buyers and customers"
K-t sch. 76“Settlements with various debtors and creditors” accrued the buyer’s debt for reimbursement of transportation costs;

Dt sch. 51"Current accounts"
K-t sch. 62“Settlements with buyers and customers”, funds were received to reimburse transportation costs.

• Tax accounting

When goods are sent to the buyer in transit, that is, the organization pays for the transportation of goods from the supplier to the buyer, bypassing the warehousing stage, there is no delivery to its warehouse. Therefore, it is “dangerous” to classify such transport costs as direct costs, since they are not associated with the acquisition of purchased goods and their delivery to the warehouse.

The costs of delivering goods to the final buyer's warehouse can quite possibly be qualified as transportation costs associated with the sale of purchased goods. Then they could be taken into account as indirect costs, which would allow them to be attributed in full to the expenses of the current reporting (tax) period.

In our opinion, the most acceptable option is to recognize transportation costs as related to the purchase of goods. In this case, the amount of transportation costs is included in the cost of purchased goods (paragraph 2 of Article 320 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

If delivery costs are not included in the cost of purchased goods, then the tax authorities, as a rule, require them to be included in the costs of delivering goods to the taxpayer’s warehouse. This, in turn, leads to the need to distribute them between sold goods and the balance of goods at an average percentage for the current month, taking into account the carryover balance at the beginning of the month.

For the taxpayer, the third option for accounting for such expenses is more profitable: consider them related only to the sale of goods. After all, as a rule, during transit, ownership of goods passes from the supplier to the wholesaler at the time of shipment. Based on this, all expenses incurred in the future can be qualified as expenses for the sale of goods and, accordingly, recognized as indirect and fully attributed to the expenses of the current reporting (tax) period.

As an additional argument when deciding on the qualification of disputed delivery costs, you can refer to the norm of clause 4 of Art. 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, according to which, if some expenses with equal grounds can be attributed simultaneously to several groups of expenses, then the taxpayer has the right to independently determine which group he will assign such expenses to. In relation to the situation under consideration, this means that since delivery costs can equally be considered both costs associated with the acquisition of goods and costs associated with its sale, the taxpayer has the right to attribute them to any of the listed groups.

Delivery costs recognized as indirect are taken into account on the date the parties sign the document confirming the provision of transport services (subclause 3, clause 7, article 272 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

In tax accounting, if the buyer compensates for transportation costs, the incoming amount is taken into account as income, and the costs of paying for the delivery of goods are included in expenses that reduce the income tax base.

• Application of PBU 18/02

Example 1

Under the supply agreement, the organization (transit seller) purchased goods worth 590,000 rubles. (including VAT RUB 90,000). The goods were sold to the buyer at a contract price of RUB 896,800. (including VAT RUB 136,800). According to the terms of the concluded contracts, ownership of the goods passes to the organization at the moment the goods are transferred by the supplier to the carrier; ownership of the goods passes to the buyer after he receives the goods at his warehouse. Payment to the supplier is made after the goods are transferred to the carrier. The buyer paid for the goods immediately after receiving it (in the same month). The cost of delivering goods from the supplier’s warehouse to the buyer’s warehouse, carried out by a transport company, is 23,600 rubles. (including VAT RUB 3,600), payment was made in the month of service provision. Expenses for payment for the services of a transport organization are considered as expenses associated with the sale of goods and are fully charged to the expenses of the current period in the debit of account 44.

In the accounting of a wholesale trade organization, operations for the purchase and sale of goods, if the goods are delivered in transit from the supplier’s warehouse to the final buyer’s warehouse without posting the goods to the organization’s own warehouse, should be reflected in the entries given in Table. 1.

Under the supply agreement, the organization - the “transit” seller purchased goods worth 590,000 rubles. (including VAT RUB 90,000). The goods were sold to the buyer at a contract price of 700,000 rubles. According to the terms of the concluded contracts, ownership of the goods passes to the organization at the moment the goods are transferred by the supplier to the carrier; ownership of the goods passes to the buyer after he receives the goods at his warehouse. Payment to the supplier is made after the goods are transferred to the carrier. The buyer paid for the goods the next month after receiving it. According to the terms of the purchase and sale agreement concluded by the “transit” seller with the buyer, the goods are delivered to the buyer’s warehouse by the buyer himself with the help of a transport organization. A wholesale trade organization applies the simplified tax system (the object of taxation is “income reduced by the amount of expenses”).

In the accounting of a wholesale trade organization, operations for the purchase and sale of goods, if the goods are delivered in transit from the supplier’s warehouse to the final buyer’s warehouse without posting the goods to the organization’s own warehouse, should be reflected in the entries given in Table 2.

Quite often, business entities of various profiles are faced with a lack of storage space. This is especially true for trade organizations. There are several ways to solve the problem of lack of storage space today. In this publication N.V. Fimina, a lawyer and tax expert, analyzes possible options from the point of view of emerging tax consequences. Recommendations are given for reflecting transactions in the 1C: Accounting 8 program (rev. 3.0).

Trading activities without a warehouse

The absence of warehouse premises cannot indicate the fictitious activities of a trade organization and should not cause complaints from inspectors. This is also confirmed by the materials of arbitration practice (see, for example, the decision of the Twentieth Arbitration Court of Appeal dated January 22, 2013 in case No. A09-4719/2012). Even without warehouse premises, an organization whose main business activity is the sale of goods can function normally, for example, using the following options:

• warehouse rent;
• transit trade;
• transfer of goods to an intermediary for sale;
• transfer of goods for storage;
• obtaining rights to free use of warehouse premises.

Warehouse for rent

One of the options for solving the problem of the lack of warehouse space intended for storing goods is to conclude a warehouse lease agreement.

Under a lease (property lease) agreement, the lessor (lessor) undertakes to provide the lessee (tenant) with property for a fee for temporary possession and use or for temporary use (Article 606 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). Lease of buildings (structures) is one of the types of lease agreement, which is regulated by paragraph 4 of Chapter 34 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

The norms of the current legislation of the Russian Federation allow us to highlight the following features of a lease agreement for a building or structure (including a lease agreement for a warehouse):

• the agreement is concluded in writing, a lease agreement concluded for a period of at least a year is subject to state registration and is considered concluded from the moment of such registration (Article 651 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation);
• the amount of rent is fixed in the contract and can be established in various forms (as a rule, the amount of rent is determined based on the cost of a meter of warehouse space and the transferred areas);
• the transfer of property by the lessor and its acceptance by the lessee is carried out under a transfer deed or other transfer document signed by the parties (Article 655 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

The amount of rent can be taken into account when calculating income tax as part of other expenses associated with production and sales (clause 10, clause 1, article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). The general criterion for recognizing expenses is their economic justification (Article 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Therefore, in practice, a business entity may have a question whether to take into account rent for the period when the warehouse premises were not used in business activities.

For example, in a situation where an organization entered into a warehouse lease agreement, transferred the rent to the lessor, but has not yet begun operating the leased property (the goods were not purchased from the supplier in a timely manner).

It is important to understand that this fact does not affect the right of a business entity to take into account expenses. The income tax base can be reduced by the amount of the lease payment.

This is confirmed by the financial department when commenting on similar situations (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated October 4, 2011 No. 03-03-06/1/622).

If the lessor organization uses the warehouse in activities subject to VAT, the amount of “input” tax can be deducted. In this case, the general requirements established by the current legislation of the Russian Federation must be met (in particular, a correctly executed invoice must be available).

If a warehouse is rented from an individual, the tenant trade organization has the responsibilities of a tax agent for personal income tax*. Exceptions to this rule are cases of renting property from an entrepreneur.

Note:
* For more information on recording rental transactions, see the article “Rental of property: taxes from the tenant”, published in No. 11 (November) “BUKH.1S” for 2012.

Suppliers and customers of a trading organization are not always located in the same area. Therefore, a business entity engaged in trading activities may need to rent a warehouse in another city. In this case, the question arises whether it is necessary to register a separate division in this city.

For the purposes of applying the tax legislation of the Russian Federation, a separate division is any division of an organization that is territorially separate from it and at the location of which stationary workplaces are equipped. Recognition of a separate division of an organization as such is carried out regardless of whether its creation is reflected or not reflected in the constituent or other organizational and administrative documents of the organization, and on the powers vested in the specified division (Clause 2 of Article 11 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Some practitioners mistakenly do not register separate units when renting warehouse space in another area, trying to subsequently prove to tax inspectors who came to check that jobs have not been created at the location of the warehouse.

These attempts are usually doomed to failure. If there is a warehouse for storage, it means that there are employees who service it (load and unload goods, etc.). Therefore, in our opinion, it will be necessary to register a separate division in any case.

In practice, the following situation is possible. The organization that rents warehouse premises also provides the tenant with the services of a warehouseman (who works for the landlord under an employment contract), so that the tenant does not need to have its own representatives at the warehouse. The lease agreement stipulates the lessor's obligation to ensure the safety of the goods.

Transit trade

Selling goods without using your own warehouse is often called transit trade in practice.

The essence of this method of organizing business transactions is that the goods come directly from the organization’s supplier to the buyer. These economic relations are regulated by two independent transactions. This is, firstly, a purchase and sale agreement between an organization and its supplier, and secondly, a purchase and sale agreement between an organization and its buyer.

Ownership of goods to an organization that uses transit trade usually passes when the goods are shipped from the original supplier's warehouse or transferred to the first carrier. In any case, the procedure for transferring ownership should be specified in the contract. At the same time, ownership rights are transferred from the transit trading organization to the final consumer (buyer). In this case, the consignee is the final buyer, and the consignor is the supplier of the trading organization.

For more information about the features of transit trade, see Table 1.

Table 1

Features of transit trade

Note:
* If a decision is made to continue to use unified forms of primary documents. You can learn more about the practice of applying the Federal Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ “On Accounting”, including the abolition of the obligation to use unified forms of primary documents, as well as support for the provisions of the Law in “1C: Accounting 8”, having read the materials of the lecture dated May 23, 2013, held in 1C: Lecture Hall - see http://its.1c.ru/lector/

Note:
** Similar explanations can be found on the websites of regional Federal Tax Service (see, for example, http://www.r61.nalog.ru/html/sites/www.r61.nalog.ru/statistika/tranzit.doc).

As can be seen from the information in Table 1, the peculiarities of document preparation during transit trade are such that the final buyer, by signing the first invoice as a consignee, sees the original supplier and his prices.

This, in turn, entails quite predictable risks for the trading organization. In the future, the buyer may try to do without a transit organization and independently conclude an agreement with the original supplier.

Since the peculiarity of transit trade is that the trading organization (the first buyer) and the supplier do not meet during the execution of the contract, and the goods do not arrive at the warehouse of the trading organization, primary documents (contracts, invoices, invoices, etc.) are sent by mail or courier delivery. It should be borne in mind that copies of documents received by fax cannot be primary documents, since documents must be signed by authorized persons. This is a condition for their validity and authenticity. Without the original signatures of officials of the selling organization, the buyer does not have the right to take into account the purchased goods, will not be able to take into account the expenses incurred and will not be able to claim VAT for deduction.

In arbitration practice, there are court decisions that say that an organization, accepting for deduction of VAT on an invoice received by fax, acts lawfully (see, for example, resolutions of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Volga-Vyatka District dated October 29, 2007 No. A31-396/ 2007-16, Ural District dated 06/09/2008 No. Ф09-4137/08-С2, dated 02/21/2006 No. Ф09-685/06-С2, West Siberian District dated 02/27/2006 No. Ф04-599/2006 (19980-А27 -6)). However, this point of view can be adhered to only if the organization is ready to argue with inspectors on this issue.

Example

In the 1C: Accounting 8 program (rev. 3.0), transactions for accounting for transit trade are reflected as two sales transactions.

Even though Torgovlya LLC does not actually deliver the goods (it is immediately transferred to the final buyer), this organization in any case must reflect the capitalization of goods purchased from the supplier and intended for resale in accounting by debiting account 41 “Goods” (in in accordance with the Instructions for the application of the Chart of Accounts approved by order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated October 31, 2000 No. 94n). Otherwise, the organization loses the right to deduct “input” VAT, since in this case the taxpayer will not comply with the condition provided for in paragraph 1 of Article 172 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation for applying VAT deductions in terms of accepting goods for accounting.

When selling goods to the final buyer - CJSC "Magazin", - the trade organization fills out a document Sales of goods and services. The from field indicates the date of shipment of the goods - the moment the goods are transferred to the carrier by JSC Trade Warehouse.

To call up a printed form Consignment note you can use the button Seal.

Since during transit the trading organization does not hand over the goods personally to the buyer and does not hand them over to the carrier, and the goods are handed over to the carrier by the supplier in its warehouse, for the purpose of determining the VAT tax base for the trading organization, shipment is the moment the goods are transferred by the shipper (supplier) to the carrier. At the same time, this moment of determining the tax base for a trade organization is not subject to change by contractual terms.

Further based on the document Sales of goods and services you need to create a document Invoice issued. To do this you need to click the link Enter invoice at the bottom of the document Sales of goods and services. In the window that opens Invoice issued document fields will be automatically filled with data from the document Sales of goods and services. The accountant only needs to check that the fields of the document are filled out.

Flag Correction number is established in case of registration of a corrected invoice. In our example, there is no need to set this flag.

Flag Not exhibited is set only if the invoice is subject to registration, but is not issued to the buyer (in our example this option is also not used).

Flag Exhibited need to install. Next, the field indicates the date of transfer of the invoice to the buyer and selects one of the issuing methods - On paper or Electronic.

Transfer of goods to an intermediary for sale

Most often, these relationships are regulated by a commission agreement. Under a commission agreement, one party (the commission agent) undertakes, on behalf of the other party (the principal), for a fee, to carry out one or more transactions on its own behalf, but at the expense of the principal. Under a transaction made by a commission agent with a third party, the commission agent acquires rights and becomes obligated, even if the principal was named in the transaction or entered into direct relations with the third party for the execution of the transaction (clause 1 of Article 990 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). When selling goods through a commission agent, the principal:

• receives income in the form of proceeds from the sale of goods (clause 1 of Article 249 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
• bears expenses in the amount of the purchase price of the goods (clause 1 of Article 268 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), as well as for the payment of remuneration and reimbursement of the costs of the intermediary.

Law enforcement practice makes it possible to formulate a number of issues that are relevant for this type of organization of economic relations.

If the principal uses the accrual method, the date of receipt of income from the sale is the day the goods are shipped to the buyer (another date of transfer of ownership) (clause 3 of Article 271 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). This date must be indicated in the intermediary’s notice of sale and (or) in his report (Article 999 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, paragraph 3 of Article 271 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). The principal, who was not informed about the sale of goods in a timely manner, may incorrectly formulate the income tax base, which entails unfavorable consequences for him.

Moreover, the delay in question may not always be recognized as unlawful (accordingly, the intermediary cannot always be held accountable). The commission agent must notify the committent of the date of sale within three days from the end of the reporting period in which it occurred (Article 316 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). If the commission agent’s reporting period for income tax is a quarter, and the principal’s is a month, formally, when sending a notification based on the results of the quarter, no violations are made. In this case, the principal is deprived of the opportunity to correctly calculate income tax. This situation can be avoided by specifying the deadline for submitting a notice or report directly in the contract.

Another pressing issue is related to the use by the committent of the simplified taxation system (STS). A fairly common situation in business practice is when a commission agent selling the goods of the principal transfers to the principal the proceeds for the goods sold minus his remuneration. In this case, practitioners have a question: in what amount should the proceeds from the sale of goods through an intermediary be reflected?

In this situation, the following must be taken into account. Proceeds from sales are the price of goods that the intermediary received from the buyer (clause 1 of Article 248 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). It is this amount that must be indicated in the intermediary’s report on the fulfillment of obligations under the contract and in the documents confirming the implementation. Even if the commission agent withheld the amount of his remuneration from the proceeds received, the entire amount of revenue must be included in income without taking into account deductions (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated December 29, 2006 No. 03-11-04/2/298).

And finally, the third issue, which usually causes difficulties for practitioners, is the specifics of issuing invoices when selling goods under a commission agreement. These features are shown in Table 2.

Example

In the program “1C: Accounting 8” (rev. 3.0), these operations were reflected as follows.

When transferring goods to the commission agent, the principal drew up a document Sales of goods and services(menu Purchasing and Selling - Sales). The type of operation chosen was Sales, commission. The accountant filled out the header of the document as follows. In field Stock he has chosen the warehouse from which the goods are shipped. In field Counterparty chose a commission agent. In field Agreement an agreement with a commission agent was chosen.

In the document Sales of goods and services the quantity of goods and the prices at which the goods are transferred for sale are indicated. Since Komitent LLC’s own goods are transferred for sale, then as a requisite Accounting account (BU) the account for accounting for goods or finished products is indicated, for example account 41.01 “Goods in warehouses”. Required details to fill out Transferred, accounting account, since this account will reflect the cost of goods transferred to commission. Account 45 “Goods shipped” can be selected as the account value.

When posting, a posting is generated for the cost of the goods transferred. Upon the sale of goods, the accountant drew up a document Commission agent's report on sales. This document records the following events:

• sale of goods owned by the organization;
• provision of intermediary services by the commission agent.

At the bottom of the document there are details:

• Invoice for goods sold;
• Invoice for the amount of remuneration.

The principal also re-issued an invoice to the commission agent with the indicators contained in the invoice issued by the commission agent to the buyer (see table 2).

table 2

Scheme for issuing invoices when selling goods through commission agents

Transit trade: registration, accounting, taxation (Bursulaya T.)

Date of article posting: 08/20/2012

In practice, operations related to transit trade are often encountered. Transit trade is a sales method in which a trading organization supplies the buyer with goods not from its warehouse, but directly from the supplier or the manufacturer of the goods. In this case, the goods do not actually arrive at the warehouse of the trading organization. Let's take a closer look.

From a legal point of view, operations related to transit trade are two independent transactions. Therefore, when implementing it, the wholesale organization enters into two supply contracts: one with the supplier from whom it purchases the goods, and the other with the buyer to whom it supplies the goods.
The peculiarity of such agreements is as follows. Under the first agreement, a trading organization transfers money to its supplier for goods. The consignee under the contract is the final buyer. This method of trading is permitted by Art. 509 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. It establishes that the buyer of goods, in the case provided for by the contract, has the right to require the seller to ship to a third party. The goods do not actually arrive at the warehouse of the trading organization, but under the first contract (with the supplier) it still acquires ownership of it.
Under the second agreement, the trading organization receives money from the buyer for the goods supplied. The shipper is not a trading organization, but a supplier of goods under the first contract.
Transit deliveries are not intermediary operations, since in supply contracts each party acts on its own behalf and at its own expense. In this case, the trading organization acts first as a buyer and then as a seller. In relations with the buyer, she acts as the owner of the goods.
Taxation and accounting of transit trade are carried out as records of purchase and sale transactions.

Preparation of primary documents

Accounting and tax records are maintained on the basis of primary documents confirming the fact of business transactions. Registration of the purchase and sale of goods is carried out by a consignment note in form N TORG-12, approved by Resolution of the State Statistics Committee of Russia dated December 25, 1998 N 132 (hereinafter referred to as Resolution N 132).
Based on this invoice, the sending party writes off the goods, and the receiving party receives them.
According to the Instructions for filling out and using forms of primary accounting documentation for recording trade operations, approved by Resolution No. 132, the consignment note is drawn up in two copies. When carrying out transit trade, the minimum number of participants is three, and the minimum number of contracts is two, therefore, according to the terms of the two contracts, two invoices must be drawn up, two copies each. Both versions of invoices will be available only to the trading organization (transit supplier) - one copy of each. The initial seller and the final buyer will have copies of different invoices: the original seller will have an invoice under the agreement between him and the trade organization (in the role of a buyer), the final buyer will have an invoice between him and the trade organization (in the role of a seller).
Since the invoice confirms the transfer of ownership, in the invoice issued to the buyer, the trade organization must reflect the dispatch of the goods to the buyer in transit. This goal is achieved by correctly filling out the details of the invoice.
So, when trading in transit, two waybills are issued: one on behalf of the shipper, the other on behalf of the transit organization.
In the invoice issued, the supplier (shipper) indicates as:
supplier and shipper - yourself;
buyer and payer - an organization engaged in transit trade;
consignee - the final buyer.
In the line "Base" you should indicate the number and date of the purchase and sale agreement concluded by the trade transit organization with the supplier. The details of the line “Cargo received” are not filled in. Such completion of the invoice confirms that the supplier has fulfilled its delivery obligations under the contract to the third party specified by the transit organization. This document is drawn up by the seller in two copies.
In turn, the organization engaged in transit trade, in the invoice issued to the buyer, indicates itself as a supplier, the buyer - as a consignee, buyer and payer, and as a shipper - the first supplier from whose warehouse the goods are shipped to the buyer. The line "Base" reflects the details of the agreement between the trade organization and the buyer of the goods. The details of the line “Cargo released” are not filled in. This document is drawn up by the seller in two copies, both of which are transferred to the buyer. The buyer signs the invoices, puts his stamp and returns the first copy of the shipping documents to the transit organization-seller.
Please note: the execution of the primary document is directly related to the content and terms of the concluded contracts. The consignor and the consignee have the right to sign the consignment note in accordance with the contents of form N TORG-12. These persons in this chain are the original seller and the final buyer. The trading organization (transit supplier) does not sign for any invoice.
During transit trade, when the reseller trade organization and the supplier do not meet during the execution of the contract, and the goods do not arrive at the trade organization’s warehouse, primary documents (contracts, invoices, invoices, etc.) are sent by mail or courier delivery (received by Fax copies of documents, as you know, are not primary). The same should be done if the reseller trade organization does not have the opportunity to transfer shipping documents to the buyer through the carrier (they should also be sent to the buyer by mail or courier delivery).
All parties to the transit transaction must also have copies of transport and accompanying documents. Depending on the type of transport used for delivery, these will be:
- waybills - for delivery by road;
- railway transport invoices - for delivery by rail;
- port bill of lading - for sea transportation;
- sender's invoice and cargo waybill - for delivery by air.
Transport documents must contain marks from the shipper (supplier) about the shipment of the goods and the consignee (buyer) about receipt of the goods, which serves as confirmation that the goods were actually received by the buyer.
In addition, this is necessary for the timely reflection of the transactions of registration of purchased and sale of goods sold, depending on the conditions for the transfer of ownership rights enshrined in the agreements of the trade organization - reseller with the supplier and buyer of the goods.

Procedure for issuing transport invoices

Currently, there are two forms of invoices: transport (approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated April 15, 2011 N 272 “On approval of the Rules for the transportation of goods by road”), commodity transport in form N 1-T (approved by Decree of the State Statistics Committee of Russia dated November 28. 1997 N 78). Both of them are intended to account for the movement of inventory items and payments for their transportation by road and confirm the conclusion of a contract for the carriage of goods (Clause 1, Article 8 of the Federal Law of November 8, 2007 N 259-FZ "Charter of Road Transport and Urban Ground Electric Transport" ).
Let's look at the general rules. The invoice is issued in four copies: the first remains with the shipper (in the case of transit trade, he is the supplier of goods) and is intended for writing off inventory items.
The second, third and fourth copies, certified by the signatures and seals (stamps) of the shipper and the signature of the driver, are handed to the driver. The second copy is handed over by the driver to the consignee (this is the final buyer of the goods) and is intended for posting.
The third and fourth copies, certified by the signatures and seals (stamps) of the consignee, are handed over to the organization that owns the vehicle.
The third copy, which serves as the basis for calculations, is attached by the organization - the owner of the vehicle to the invoice for transportation and sent to the payer - the customer of the vehicle.
If, under the terms of supply contracts, the delivery of cargo is carried out at the expense of a transit company, it is also the customer and payer under the contract for the carriage of goods. In this case, when filling out the invoice, in the “Payer” line, indicate the full name of the organization carrying out transit transactions, its address, and bank details.
The fourth copy of the invoice is attached to the waybill and serves as the basis for accounting for transport work and calculating the driver’s wages in the trucking company.
As can be seen from the above, each of the four parties to the transaction will have one original invoice.
If the delivery of goods in accordance with concluded supply agreements is carried out not by a transit organization - a wholesale seller, but, for example, by a supplier of goods or by the final buyer, then the name of the customer organization will be indicated in the line "Payer". In this case, the wholesaler must ensure that he has a copy of the invoice. It is its presence that can prove the fact of shipment by the supplier of goods to the final buyer.

Accounting

A trading organization is obliged to take into account goods for which ownership has been transferred to it, regardless of their receipt at the organization's warehouse. To fulfill this requirement, organizations engaged in transit trade, in practice, often record the acquisition and disposal of transit goods in the same way as goods entering the warehouse, in account 41 “Goods”:
Debit 41 Credit 60, 76 - transit goods are capitalized;


Debit 90/2 Credit 41 - the purchase price of transit goods is written off;


At the same time, the Instruction of the Ministry of Finance of Russia on the application of the Chart of Accounts, approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated October 31, 2000 N 94n, provides for the posting of goods on account 41 upon their arrival at the warehouse.
Since in this case the goods do not arrive at the buyer’s warehouse, their recording in account 41 may be recognized by the tax authorities as unlawful, as a result of which the legality of attributing the cost of the goods to expenses during its sale and claiming VAT for deduction on this product may be challenged.
To avoid tax risks, it is advisable to use account 45 “Goods shipped” to reflect transactions of purchase and sale of transit goods.
This account is intended to summarize information about the availability and movement of shipped products (goods), the proceeds from the sale of which cannot be recognized in accounting for a certain time (for example, when exporting products). This account also records finished products transferred to other organizations for sale on a commission basis.
If organizations use account 45 “Goods shipped”, then the reflection of transactions for the acquisition and sale of transit goods should be recorded using the following entries:
Debit 45 Credit 60, 76 - goods in transit are accepted for accounting;
Debit 19 Credit 60, 76 - VAT allocated;
Debit 68/VAT Credit 19 - VAT is deductible;
Debit 62 Credit 90/1 - revenue from the sale of transit goods is reflected;
Debit 90/2 Credit 45 - the purchase price of transit goods is written off;
Debit 90/3 Credit 68/VAT - VAT charged.
This procedure for recording transactions is fully consistent with the Chart of Accounts.
Taking into account the above, we recommend that the procedure for the acquisition and disposal of transit goods be fixed in the accounting policy.

Calculation of income tax

In accordance with Art. 247 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the object of taxation for corporate income tax is the profit received by the taxpayer. Profit for Russian organizations is recognized as income received, reduced by the amount of expenses incurred (clause 1 of Article 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Income from transit trade

In the tax accounting of a trading organization (transit supplier), the amount of revenue from the sale of goods in transit minus VAT is recognized as its income from sales (Articles 249 and 248 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
The procedure for recognizing income for taxpayers using the accrual method for tax purposes is established by Art. 271 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. The date of receipt of income from the sale of goods is the date of sale of goods, determined in accordance with clause 1 of Art. 39 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, i.e. the date of transfer of ownership of the goods from the seller to the buyer.
Income for a trading organization under a supply agreement is the proceeds from the sale of goods. When using the accrual method, the date of receipt of income is the date of sale of goods (work, services) regardless of the actual receipt of funds (clause 3 of Article 271 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), i.e. income is considered received at the moment of transfer of ownership from the trading organization to the buyer.
If an organization accounts for income and expenses using the cash method, then the moment of occurrence of income is the day when money is received in the organization’s current account or cash register, the date of transfer of property as payment for goods and other methods of repaying debt (clause 2 of Article 273 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Moreover, income recognizes not only payment for previously delivered goods, but also advances received from the buyer for future deliveries.

Transit trade costs

The amount of income received is reduced by the amount of expenses incurred (clause 1 of Article 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). When selling goods, expenses associated with their acquisition and sale are determined taking into account Art. 320 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which determines the procedure for allocating expenses for trading operations for taxpayers using the accrual method.
As follows from Art. 320 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the current month’s expenses in a trade organization are divided into direct and indirect. Direct costs include:
- the cost of purchasing goods sold in a given reporting (tax) period;
- transportation costs for the delivery of purchased goods to the warehouse of the taxpayer - the buyer of the goods, if they are not included in the purchase price of the specified goods.
All other expenses of a trading organization incurred in the current month are recognized as indirect, and this, in turn, means that they do not need to be distributed, since they completely reduce the income from sales of the current month.

Accounting and tax accounting
transport expenses of a trade organization

When carrying out transit trade, there is uncertainty regarding the qualification of transport expenses of a transit organization in accounting and for profit tax purposes.
Let's start with the tax accounting of transport expenses of a transit organization.
From a literal reading of Art. 320 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation it follows that direct expenses of a trading organization include transportation costs for the delivery of purchased goods to the warehouse of the taxpayer-buyer.
When goods are sent to the buyer in transit, i.e. the organization pays for the transportation of goods from its supplier to its buyer, bypassing the warehousing stage; there is no delivery of goods to the warehouse of the trading organization, which is a fundamental criterion for accounting for transport costs as direct costs in accordance with Art. 320 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.
Such transport costs of the transit supplier cannot be considered direct expenses of the trade organization, since they are not related to the acquisition of purchased goods and their delivery to the warehouse of the trade organization.
In this case, the costs of delivering the goods to the final buyer's warehouse are qualified as transportation costs associated with the sale of purchased goods. Therefore, such transportation costs should be taken into account as indirect costs and fully attributed to the expenses of the current reporting (tax) period. However, given that there is no official position on this issue, there are tax risks.
It seems less risky to recognize the entire amount of transportation costs as direct costs associated with the acquisition of goods at the time of recording the sale of goods. In this case, the amount of direct expenses in terms of transportation costs may be included in the cost of purchased goods.
If delivery costs are not included in the cost of purchased goods, then they are reflected in costs and distributed between goods sold and the balance of goods at the average percentage for the current month, taking into account the carryover balance at the beginning of the month.
As for the accounting of transport expenses, in order to avoid differences between tax and accounting and the need to apply PBU 18/02 “Accounting for calculations of income tax of organizations” (approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated November 19, 2002 N 114n), accounting for such expenses should be similar to tax accounting:
Option 1. Expenses for payment for the services of a transport organization in both accounting and tax accounting are considered as expenses associated not with the purchase of goods, but with the sale of goods and are fully included in the expenses of the current period.
Option 2. Expenses for payment for the services of a transport organization in both accounting and tax accounting are considered as expenses associated not with the sale of goods, but with the acquisition of goods, and are included in the cost of the goods (i.e. in accounting they are taken into account on account 41 or 45 according to PBU 5/01 “Accounting for inventories”, approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated 06/09/2001 N 44n). How exactly to include such expenses in the cost of goods should be determined in the accounting and tax accounting policies. For example, you can include delivery costs for a specific invoice in the actual cost of each specific item in proportion to cost, quantity, weight, or some other indicator.
Option 3. Expenses for payment for the services of a transport organization in both accounting and tax accounting are considered as expenses associated not with the sale of goods, but with the acquisition of goods, and are not included in the cost of the goods, but are subject to distribution between the goods sold and the balance of goods at the end of each month according to the methodology set out in Art. 320 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, in accounting and tax accounting.
It should be noted that most trading organizations take into account acquisition costs according to the third option, having allocated a separate sub-account for their accounting in account 44. In this case, expenses can be recognized in the cost of goods sold (i.e. written off from account 44 to the debit of account 90 “Sales” ", subaccount 90-2 "Cost of sales") in whole or in part. This provision is provided for business expenses in paragraph. 2 clause 9 PBU 10/99 “Expenses of the organization” (approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated 05/06/1999 N 33n).
In case of partial write-off, expenses are subject to distribution between the goods sold and the balance of goods at the end of each month.
The chosen solution regarding the procedure for accounting for transportation costs should be recorded in the organization’s accounting policies for accounting and tax purposes.

Value added tax

The moment of determining the tax base for VAT when selling goods in accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. 167 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation is the earliest of the following dates:
- day of shipment (transfer) of goods (works, services), property rights;
- the day of payment, partial payment for upcoming deliveries of goods (performance of work, provision of services), transfer of property rights.
When delivering goods in transit, the transit supplier does not transfer the goods to the buyer and does not hand them over to the carrier. This is done by the shipper. In this case, the date of shipment should be considered the date of the first drawing up of the primary document, issued either to the carrier for delivery of the goods to the buyer, or directly to the buyer (see Letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated April 18, 2007 N 03-07-11/110, dated June 22. 2010 N 03-07-09/37).
For the transit supplier, the date of shipment will be the date indicated on the invoice in Form N TORG-12, which he will issue in the name of the buyer.
In other words, for the purpose of calculating VAT for a taxpayer-wholesaler (transit supplier), the moment of determining the tax base for shipped goods is considered to be the date indicated in the shipping documents, that is, the date the transit supplier draws up an invoice in Form N TORG-12 addressed to the buyer.
As for the right to deduct VAT, it arises for a trade organization - a VAT payer when purchasing goods after they have been registered (if there are relevant primary documents and a supplier invoice) on the basis of clause 1 of Art. 172 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.
The term “acquisition” in civil legislation in relation to property means the acquisition of ownership of the latter (Articles 212, 218 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). Thus, when purchasing (purchasing) a product, VAT can be deducted from the buyer upon receipt of the product into ownership and registration of it (if there are appropriate primary documents and an invoice).
Acceptance of goods for registration means that goods purchased from a supplier and intended for resale are reflected in the accounting of a trade organization as a debit to account 41 “Goods” or account 45 “Goods shipped”.
Based on paragraphs 1, 2 of Art. 1 of the Law of November 21, 1996 N 129-FZ “On Accounting”, an organization is obliged to reflect the movement of its property and liabilities through continuous, continuous and documentary accounting of all business transactions. At the same time, all business transactions in accordance with clause 5 of Art. 8 of this Law are subject to timely registration in accounting accounts without any omissions or exceptions. Similar requirements are contained in the new Law of December 6, 2011 N 402-FZ “On Accounting,” which will come into force next year (see, for example, paragraph 1 of Article 10).
Consequently, the organization is obliged to take into account goods, the ownership of which has been transferred to it, regardless of their receipt at the organization’s warehouse. Thus, if, during transit trade, a trade organization does not reflect in its accounting records the acceptance of goods for accounting in accounts 41 or 45, one of the conditions of paragraph 1 of Art. 172 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation and the organization loses the right to deduct “input” VAT.
Taking into account the above, a trade organization has the right to deduct “input” VAT immediately after purchasing and accepting the goods for accounting. Physical receipt of goods at the warehouse of a trading organization is not necessary to apply the deduction. The right to deduct VAT on goods sold arises from a trading organization that sells them without delivering them to its warehouse, if it does not have warehouse accounting documents, but if it has a delivery note and a supplier invoice.

Determining the moment of transfer of ownership of goods

When trading goods in transit, it is very important to correctly determine (based on the terms of a specific purchase and sale agreement) the moment of transfer of ownership of purchased goods from the supplier to the reseller organization and from the reseller organization to the final buyer. This will allow the parties to the transaction to distribute between themselves the risks of loss of property, and a trading organization using the accrual method will make it possible to correctly determine the date of sale of goods.
As a general rule, ownership of goods arises from the moment of its transfer (Clause 1, Article 223 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). The transfer of the goods is its delivery. But a trading organization cannot directly transfer (hand over) the goods to the buyer, because it does not actually receive the goods at its warehouse.
If the goods cannot be transferred personally (handed over), the moment of its transfer in accordance with clause 1 of Art. 224 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation is the delivery of goods to the first carrier for delivery to the recipient’s warehouse. But during transit trade, the trade organization does not hand over the goods to the carrier. This is done by the supplier when sending goods from its warehouse. Then the moment of transfer of the goods to the first carrier can be confirmed by a notification from the supplier about the transfer of the goods to the carrier with documents of title attached to it.
With regard to transit trade, this rule is not entirely correct, since it is carried out within the framework of two separate sales contracts and the ownership of the goods under them is successively transferred from the supplier to the wholesale seller, and then from the latter to the final buyer.
In practice, goods are often transferred by the supplier to the carrier, who delivers them to a third party - the final buyer, or directly to the final third party - the buyer. In both cases, if the purchase and sale agreement does not indicate the moment of transfer of ownership, there is uncertainty as to the moment this right arises for the transit buyer engaged in transit trade. As a result, the VAT claimed by the latter for deduction may be disputed. Therefore, when concluding sales and purchase agreements, it is necessary to clearly state the moment of transfer of ownership.
There are several possible options for determining the moment of transfer of ownership:
- ownership of the goods passes to the wholesale buyer at the time the goods are shipped from the supplier’s warehouse, and to a third party (the final buyer of the goods) at the time the goods arrive at his warehouse. In this case, income from a trading organization using the accrual method will appear at the time of transfer of the goods upon delivery to the buyer’s warehouse;
- ownership of the goods passes to the wholesale buyer at the time the goods are shipped from the supplier’s warehouse (for example, a representative of the wholesale company is present) and is immediately transferred to the final buyer (through the carrier or a representative of a third party - the final buyer at the supplier’s warehouse). In this case, income from a trading organization using the accrual method will appear immediately after the goods are transferred to the carrier;
- if the contract stipulates that the delivered goods are received by the buyer for safekeeping, and ownership passes to him (the buyer) only after full payment for the goods, then the income of the trading organization will be considered received after the final settlement with the buyer.
It is also important to specify in supply contracts who notifies whom and within what time frame of the movement of goods.

Example 1. LLC "Wholesaler" buys goods from LLC "Supplier", sells it to LLC "Buyer". In accordance with the terms of the agreement between LLC "Wholesaler" and LLC "Supplier", the delivery of goods is carried out by LLC "Supplier" directly to LLC "Buyer" on the terms "free departure station".
In this case, the moment of transfer of ownership of the goods to LLC "Wholesaler" from LLC "Supplier" and the date of presentation for deduction of VAT will be determined on the basis of the notification received from LLC "Supplier" about sending the goods to LLC "Buyer". If, according to the terms of the agreement between the supplier and the reseller organization, the supplier undertakes to supply the goods to a third organization, then the rights to the goods are transferred from the supplier to the reseller organization only after delivery of the goods to the third organization. In this case, the basis for deducting VAT may be notification to a third organization of receipt of the goods.
If the delivery conditions were “ex-station of destination”, then the moment of transfer of ownership of the goods to Wholesaler LLC from Supplier LLC and the date of presentation for VAT deduction will occur after receiving notification of receipt of the goods from Buyer LLC. In this case, the day of purchase of goods (and their posting in accounting) will coincide with the day of their sale to the final buyer.

Preparation of invoices

To apply tax deductions, you must have invoices issued by the supplier. They must meet the requirements listed in paragraphs 5 and 6 of Art. 169 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.
You should pay attention to the procedure for issuing invoices for transit trade (the new form of invoices was approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 26, 2011 N 1137).
The details are filled in similarly to the invoice indicators in Form N TORG-12. In invoices issued by the supplier to the trading organization, on lines 2 - 2b “Seller” of the invoice as the seller of goods, the details of the supplier, his address, taxpayer identification number (TIN) and reason code for registration (KPP) must be indicated ).
Line 3 “Consignor and his address” also reflects the details of the shipper supplier.
On line 4 “Consignee and his address” the supplier must indicate the details of the final buyer of the goods, and on lines 6 - 6b as the buyer - the trading organization, its address, tax identification number and checkpoint.
When issuing an invoice in the name of the final buyer, the trade organization must also reflect the features associated with the transit sale of goods.
In invoices that a trade organization issues to the final buyer, the details of the trade organization should be indicated in the line “Seller”, and the details of the purchasing organization should be indicated in the lines “Consignee and his address” and “Buyer”. In the line "Consignor and his address" the details of the supplier of the trade organization are indicated.
The transit supplier issues this invoice no later than five calendar days, counting from the day of shipment of the goods, and registers it in the sales book on the day of shipment.
Let's look at an example of the procedure for maintaining accounting and tax records of transit trade.

Example 2. On May 25, 2012, Optovik LLC purchased a batch of sewing machines from Supplier LLC. The cost of the goods is 118,000 rubles, including VAT - 18,000 rubles. The purchased goods were sold by LLC "Wholesaler" LLC "Buyer" in transit (without delivery to the warehouse of LLC "Wholesaler"). The selling price of the goods is 177,000 rubles, including VAT - 27,000 rubles.
According to the terms of the purchase and sale agreements, the transfer of ownership from LLC "Supplier" to LLC "Wholesaler" occurs at the time of shipment of the goods from the supplier's warehouse, and from LLC "Wholesaler" to LLC "Buyer" - at the time of transfer of the goods to the carrier.
According to the terms of the purchase and sale agreement concluded by Wholesaler LLC with Buyer LLC, the goods are delivered to the buyer’s warehouse by the buyer himself with the help of a transport organization.
On May 21, 2012, settlements with the “Supplier” were made on the terms of 100% prepayment.
On June 05, 2012, payment was received for goods sold from Buyer LLC.
LLC "Wholesaler" is on a simplified regime with the object of taxation "income minus expenses" and is not a VAT payer. Amounts of “input” VAT accounted for as a separate cost item are reflected in expenses if the following conditions are simultaneously met:
- the tax has been paid to the supplier (clause 2 of Article 346.17 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
- the cost of goods (work, services), to which VAT applies, is written off as expenses (clause 8, clause 1, article 346.16 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, Letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated 07.07.2006 N 03-11-04/2/140 and dated 29.06 .2006 N 03-11-04/2/135).
However, this accounting option proposed by financiers is not a mandatory rule. Taxpayers who use the simplified tax system can use another method of accounting for “input” VAT, including its amount in the cost of the product itself. This is not of fundamental importance, since the date of recognition of paid VAT as an expense will always be the same: the date the cost of the product itself is written off as an expense (it does not matter whether immediately with VAT or separately). This point of view is confirmed, for example, by Letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated June 26, 2006 N 03-11-04/2/131.
For the purpose of calculating the single tax, LLC Wholesaler determines income and expenses using the cash method.
According to the accounting policy of Wholesaler LLC, account 45 “Goods shipped” is used to account for the purchase and sale of transit goods.
The following entries must be made in the accounting records of Wholesaler LLC:

In a letter dated August 17, 2012 No. 03-03-06/1/420, specialists from the Ministry of Finance of Russia for the first time raised the issue of accounting for transport costs when calculating income tax in a situation where the goods sold are delivered by the seller to the buyer directly from the supplier’s warehouse, bypassing their own warehouse (in transit) . But, in our opinion, these explanations are very unsuccessful.

The Ministry of Finance declined to answer

The commented letter discusses the following situation. The organization resells goods to subsidiaries. At the same time, it delivers goods from the seller’s warehouse both to its own warehouse and in transit from the seller’s warehouse to the warehouses of buyers (subsidiaries). She was interested in what expenses (direct or indirect) for the purpose of calculating income tax included transportation costs for the delivery of transit goods.

However, the Russian Ministry of Finance only quoted the provisions of Art. 320 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which regulates the procedure for determining expenses for trade operations, did not give a clear answer to the question posed.

What the Tax Code says

To understand the issue, let us analyze the provisions of Art. 320 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. It states that the taxpayer has the right to determine the cost of purchasing goods, taking into account the costs associated with their purchase, including transportation costs. Expenses for the current month are divided into direct and indirect. Direct expenses include the cost of purchasing goods sold in a given reporting (tax) period, and the amount of costs for delivery (transportation costs) of purchased goods to the buyer’s warehouse if these costs are not included in the price of the goods. All other expenses incurred in the current month are recognized as indirect expenses and reduce the income from sales of the current month.

Please note that if you read this rule verbatim, you may get the impression that the costs of delivering purchased goods can be classified as direct expenses only when the buyer has his own warehouse and the purchased goods are delivered to this warehouse. But this is not true. In this case, we do not mean a special warehouse, but any place where the buyer places the purchased goods (for example, a store, office or third party warehouse). Thus, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the North-Western District, in its resolution dated December 21, 2011 No. A42-419/2011, recognized the organization’s arguments that transportation costs are direct and are distributed only if the taxpayer has a warehouse located separately from the object of trade ( store), illegal.

So, trade organizations can take into account transportation costs associated with the delivery of purchased goods in two ways: either separately as part of direct costs, or as part of the purchase price of purchased goods. In any case, they will be written off as expenses only to the extent related to goods sold. Transportation costs associated with the sale of purchased goods are included in indirect costs and are written off as expenses in full.

In transit trade, it is difficult to say whether the purchase or sale is associated with transportation costs for delivering goods from the supplier’s warehouse to the buyer’s warehouse, bypassing the seller’s warehouse. In our opinion, in this case you need to be guided by the following rule. If, based on contractual terms, the organization can include such expenses in the cost of purchased goods, they should be considered as transportation costs associated with the purchase of goods and taken into account as part of direct expenses. If it is impossible to include such expenses in the cost of purchased goods, these are expenses associated with the sale of goods, and they must be taken into account as part of indirect expenses.

Let us explain our conclusion with examples.

example 1

Organization “A” has two supply agreements. One contract was concluded with organization “B” for the purchase of a consignment of goods from it. According to its terms, ownership of the goods passes to organization “A” at the moment it receives the goods at the warehouse of organization “B”.

Another agreement was concluded with organization “C” for the sale of a batch of goods purchased from organization “B”. Delivery of goods to organization “C” is carried out directly from the warehouse of organization “B” by organization “A”. Ownership of the goods passes from organization “A” to organization “C” at the moment of delivery of the goods to the warehouse of organization “C”.

In this case, transportation costs for the delivery of goods from the warehouse of organization “B” to the warehouse of organization “C” are costs associated with the sale of goods. Organization “A” cannot include these costs in the purchase price of goods. After all, she already transports her own goods to the buyer’s address. Therefore, these costs are indirect.

example 2

Organization “A” has two supply agreements. One contract was concluded with organization “C” for the sale of a consignment of goods to it. Another agreement was concluded with organization “B” for the purchase of a consignment of goods from it. According to its terms, organization “B” must ship the goods to organization “C”. Ownership of the goods passes from organization “B” to organization “A” and from organization “A” to organization “C” at the time of its delivery to the warehouse of organization “C”.

In this case, transportation costs for the delivery of goods from the warehouse of organization “B” to the warehouse of organization “C” are costs associated with the purchase of goods. After all, goods are transported that do not yet belong to organization “A”. In principle, these expenses could not be allocated separately at all, but could be included by organization “B” in the selling price of the goods. Therefore, it is impossible to say that these expenses are associated with sales for organization “A”. Organization "A" will purchase these goods only at the time of their delivery to the warehouse of organization "C". Consequently, organization “A” has every right to take into account such transportation costs as part of the purchase price of goods. This means that these expenses are direct for her.

So, let's summarize. The situation with classifying transport costs for the delivery of goods during transit trade as direct or indirect costs seems unclear and complicated only at first glance. You just need to carefully study the terms of the concluded contracts, in particular the moment of transfer of ownership of the goods, and find out whose goods are being transported. Then everything will fall into place. Apparently, this is why there is no judicial practice related to the inclusion of transport costs during transit trade as direct or indirect costs.

Our organization (seller) sells goods purchased from the supplier, and the goods arrive directly to the buyer from the supplier, bypassing the seller’s warehouse. If we imagine this situation schematically, it turns out that three companies are involved. How to properly organize document flow between all companies? Who should submit what primary documents to whom? Who will be the shipper, seller, etc. and in what case?

Expert opinion

In the situation you described, we are talking about a “transit” delivery, when the goods are delivered from the supplier’s warehouse to the final buyer’s warehouse without posting the goods to the organization’s own warehouse (the “transit” seller). In fact, there are two independent transactions, each of which requires its own set of documents.

As a rule, under the terms of concluded contracts for “transit” delivery, ownership of the goods passes to the organization at the moment the goods are transferred by the supplier to the carrier. Ownership of the goods passes to the buyer after he has received the goods

Payment to the supplier is made after the carrier. The buyer pays for the goods immediately after receiving it.

In “transit” trade, supply contracts are concluded on behalf of each party independently. In this case, the “transit” trading organization simultaneously acts as both a buyer and a supplier, since it is simultaneously entrusted with the responsibilities of both paying the supplier for the supplied goods and actually delivering the goods to the final buyer, although the original supplier ships the goods, and the consignee is the buyer.

In the situation under consideration, the organization, the “transit” seller, concluded two contracts: with the supplier for the purchase of goods and with the buyer for the sale of goods. This means that the organization must have two invoices, while the original supplier and the final buyer will each have one copy of different invoices.

Since the “transit” seller does not receive the goods at his warehouse and does not release them to the buyer, he is neither a consignee nor a consignor. Therefore, the registration of invoices for transit trade has its own specifics. Let us recall that the features of document flow and the procedure for filling out primary accounting documents during the transit sale of goods should be enshrined in the accounting policy.

For example, the following order can be provided.

The invoice issued by the supplier indicates:

• in the lines “Supplier” and “Consignor” – the supplier organization;
• in the line “Payer” – organization – “transit” seller;
• in the line “Consignee” – the final buyer;
• in the “Base” line – details of the supply agreement between the supplier and the “transit” trade organization;
• in the line “Cargo released” the signature of the responsible person of the supplier is placed;
• The lines “Cargo accepted” and “Cargo received by consignee” are not filled in.

The supplier draws up this invoice in two copies on the date of shipment of the goods to the address of the consignee (final buyer). Until the moment the organization - the “transit” seller hands over its invoice for the buyer to the supplier. It indicates the selling price of the product, not the price at which the product was purchased from the supplier. This invoice is also drawn up in two copies and is handed over by the supplier to the carrier as shipping documents.

It can be completed in the following order, indicating:

• in the line “Consignor” - details of the original supplier;
• in the “Supplier” line – the name of the “transit” seller;
• in the lines “Consignee” and “Payer” - the names of the final buyer;
• in the line “Base” - details of the supply agreement between the trade organization and the buyer of the goods;
• in the line “The cargo was received by the consignee” - the signature of the buyer’s responsible person.

In this case, the line “Cargo released” is not filled in, and the line “Cargo accepted” is filled in by the carrier’s representative (this detail can be omitted if the carrier refuses to fill it out).

After shipping the goods to the buyer, the supplier must transfer to the organization - the “transit” seller the original copy of the invoice issued to him. The final buyer must give the “transit” seller a signed copy of the invoice drawn up in his name by this organization. As a result, the “transit” seller will have both versions of documents. And the initial supplier and the final buyer will have copies of different invoices: the initial supplier will have an invoice under the agreement between him and the “transit” seller acting as a buyer, the final buyer will have an invoice between him and the “transit” seller acting as a seller.

When purchasing a “transit” product, the design also has its own characteristics.

On lines 2–2b “Seller” and on line 3 “Consignor and his address” of the invoice, the supplier’s details are indicated.

On line 4 “Consignee and his address” the supplier must indicate the details of the final buyer.

On lines 6–6b, the details of the trading organization are given as the buyer.

VAT amounts presented to the organization by the carrier are subject to deduction provided that the corresponding expenses are taken into account and in the presence of a correctly executed invoice issued by the carrier (subclause 1, clause 2, article 171, clause 1, article 172 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Operations for the sale of goods are recognized as subject to VAT taxation (subclause 1, clause 1, article 146 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). The tax base for VAT is determined based on the actual sales price (excluding VAT) (clause 1 of Article 154, paragraph 3 of clause 1 of Article 105.3 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). The date for determining the tax base for the sale of goods will be the date of shipment of the goods to the buyer (subclause 1, clause 1, article 167 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). The selling organization issues the corresponding invoice to the buyer no later than five days from the date of shipment of the goods (clauses 1, 3 of Article 168 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).