The reality of an individual entrepreneur (IE) — difficulties with making changes, registering an IE, and more

In our crisis realities, paradoxical as it may seem, optimal conditions are being created for entrepreneurs, since the state provides extensive support to business. This means that today any legally capable adult citizen can, if they wish, engage in entrepreneurial activity — with the exception of civil servants and military personnel. In addition, individual entrepreneurs can be not only citizens of Russia, but also stateless persons and foreign citizens, provided they reside within the territory of Russia. It is easy to see that the opportunities to start one’s own business as an individual entrepreneur in Russia are extremely plentiful, whether in trade, providing various services, or a proactive modern businessman promoting a website on Yandex.

So, for every modern entrepreneur who intends to carry out business activity without creating a legal entity, the optimal solution is state registration as an individual entrepreneur (IE) — entering a record of the new company into the Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs (EGRIP). After completing IE registration, the entrepreneur obtains the legal right to carry out entrepreneurial activity on the territory of the Russian Federation without forming a legal entity.

Registration as an IE has a number of unquestionable advantages compared to other organizational and legal forms of activity that imply the formation of a legal entity. An individual entrepreneur can hire employees; their activity counts toward their employment record; simplified taxation and accounting procedures are also provided. If you register as an IE, there is no need to arrange a legal address (since IE registration is carried out at the place of registration of the individual entrepreneur). The types of activities that the entrepreneur intends to carry out must be indicated on the registration application form — by law they are not allowed to engage in activities not listed in the extract from EGRIP. In addition, one must not forget that an IE bears full responsibility for the activities they carry out and must timely pay the corresponding tax charges (assignment of INN (Taxpayer Identification Number) and tax registration are carried out together with registration). All income of the IE obtained from their activities belongs exclusively to them, but at the same time the entrepreneur is personally liable on their obligations with their own property.

As you can see, the process of closing an IE (liquidation of an IE), as well as registering an IE, has many pitfalls and is associated with a number of serious difficulties that experienced specialists from a law firm can help you overcome. If necessary, the lawyers of such a company are ready to help you correctly prepare the documents needed to carry out the registration of changes in the founding documents of the IE.

Thus, in a situation when documents of the IE {are being changed|some changes are required, the registration of changes in the Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs (EGRIP) is carried out. Such re-registration may be either voluntary or mandatory — the latter includes the 2009 re-registration launched by amendments to Russian legislation (due to the adoption of the law "On Amendments to Part 1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation"). In accordance with the requirements of the legislation, after January 1, 2010, if the IE did not carry out the re-registration, the IE will be liquidated. Apart from this case, in legal practice closing an IE is a routine, frequently performed procedure. By court decision or by decision of the individual himself the liquidation of the IE is carried out; in any case the entrepreneur must go through a number of steps. First, the entrepreneur must close the settlement account at a bank, pay the fee, destroy the company seal, deregister from the Pension Fund, and so on, and provide the tax inspectorate with the necessary documents and certificates required to carry out the process of closing the IE. Upon completion of the procedure, the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRUL) issues a certificate of termination of the individual’s activity. It is clear that to formalize the closing of an IE you will have to overcome various bureaucratic obstacles, go through many instances, and provide all necessary and properly executed documents. Turn to good specialists at a law firm, and they will help you save precious nerves and time by taking on all the complexities: you will be confident that the processes of registering an IE, liquidating an IE, and registering changes will be carried out in the shortest possible time, at a professional level, and competently from a legal point of view.