In the process of transportation and storage of inventory, it is impossible to avoid their natural losses associated with the desiccation, dispersion, expiration, etc. Moreover, such physical changes occur even if all applicable norms and standards are complied with.

As you know, for certain groups of commodity-material values ​​the norms of natural loss are established. They are extremely important, given the fact that financially responsible persons, as well as suppliers and transport organizations, are not liable for lack of compliance.

Unfortunately, most of the acts defining the norms of natural loss were adopted at the time of the USSR. Sometimes it complicates their search and application. However, they are valid until the adoption of the relevant Ukrainian norms.

Can a company write off the shortage of onions and carrots found during inventory, to use norms of natural loss in accordance with the Order of the Ministry of Trade of the USSR №88 dated 02/04/1987 "Norms of natural loss of food products when stored and issued in the pantries of public catering?

Natural loss of production is considered to be a reduction in its quantity (weight) as a result of the natural change in biological or physico-chemical properties while retaining qualitative characteristics.

Losses due to "natural loss" are considered to be a normal occurrence in the course of economic activity, if certain measures are taken to preserve products: the required temperature regime and humidity regime are provided.

For the reasons stated, the losses resulting from the natural loss identified during the inventory are recorded in the inventory description as the deviation of the actual amount (weight) from the accounting records. With appropriate justifications, such losses are written off in accounting, not recognizing them as a residual shortage.

Among the normative acts of Ukraine there is no one that would approve norms of natural loss or allowable amounts of stock losses. There were a lot of such documents in the times of the USSR. In Ukraine, for 26 years of its independent existence, no new document on norms of natural loss has not appeared.

November 23, 2016, by the Resolution No. 1066, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the List of legal acts of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which are not applied on the territory of Ukraine. A lot of documents, which approved the norms of natural loss or allowable sizes of commodity losses were listed.

The abolition of old documents in general and the rules of natural loss in particular is a logical step towards the deregulation of entrepreneurial activity. Thus, although Resolution No. 1066 did not abolish all the old documents, it is safe to assert that there are no officially approved norms of natural loss in Ukraine. As stated in the letter of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine № 35230-07-10/24042, the authority of this Ministry does not include the development of norms of natural loss. The powers of other ministries and departments also does not include this task. And this shows that the state does not consider it necessary to regulate and control this phenomenon.

In the conditions of a market economy, control over the use of resources is the sphere of interests of owners of enterprises and the sphere of responsibility of authorized. This doctrine is enshrined in Article 8 of the Law on Accounting.

Consequently, if you consider that the rules of natural loss, established by the Order of the Ministry of Commerce of the USSR No. 88 dated 02/04/1987, "Norms of natural loss of food products when stored and issued in the pantries of public catering establishments", are relevant now, then you can use them, approving internal administrative document.

What postings do write-offs in the accounting in the limits of the norm of natural дщіі, in order not to accrue conditional obligations of VAT in accordance with the requirements of paragraph 198.5 of the Tax Code of Ukraine?

In accordance with paragraph 14 of the Accounting Pronouncements 9, "excessive losses and shortages of inventories" are not included in the initial cost of inventories. The same recommendations are found in the Methodological Recommendations on Planning, Accounting and Calculation of the Pricing of Products (Works, Services) of Agricultural Enterprises, approved by the Order of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine of May 18, 2001, No. 132.

In section III of the Tax Code of Ukraine, which establishes the procedure for determining the object of taxation of income tax, there are no references to any norms. This means that the Code does not envisage adjusting the financial result before taxation to the sum of those or those, including overtime losses. And The State Fiscal Service of Ukraine is forced to admit it.

As for VAT, while in Section V of the Tax Code of Ukraine there are references to the rules, taxes are actively trying to use them as a tool of fiscal polic.

"Thus, in order to determine the tax liability for VAT in accordance with clause 198.5 of Article 198 of the Tax Code, in writing off losses incurred in the storage and transportation of products, taxpayers must be guided by the current legislation of Ukraine. At the same time, the possibility of self-determination by economic entities of the norms of natural loss of products when calculating the amount of added velue is not provided by the Tax Code. "

So, accounting helps to avoid charging tax liabilities from VAT, according to the rules of which the loss of attrition and even "above standard" for various technologies to write off the cost of sales of finished products.

The information was provided by Crowe Horwath Ukraine

Dmytro Mykhaylenko,

Leonid Karpov,

Iryna Holoshevych