The Unified Register of small and medium-sized businesses was launched

On August 1, 2016, the Unified Register of small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) was launched into operation. It spares companies the need to confirm eligibility to benefits or participation in public procurement with the paper documents.

The Register is available on the website of the Federal Tax Service. It was created on the basis of the cloud technology, which allows to obtain relevant information from the Register from any landline and mobile device in the real-time mode.

The Federal Tax Service forms the Register on the basis of the information on income and the average number of employees of the companies and individual entrepreneurs, of the data from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and the Unified State Register of individual entrepreneurs, as well of the information from other government agencies and authorized organizations.

The Register of SMB includes entities that meet the requirements established by the Federal Law of December 29, 2015 № 408-FZ "On Amendments to some legislative acts of the Russian Federation". In particular, there are indicators of the average number of employees for each category of small and medium-sized businesses according to which the company is automatically considered to be a small, medium or micro-enterprise. In addition, there are income indicators for each category of companies. For example, a small business will be included in the Register if it employs up to 100 people, and has the income from 120 to 800 million rubles. For medium-sized companies, employing up to 250 people, the income limit value is set within the range of 2 billion rubles.

The SMB Register is generated automatically, which means there is no need to submit any documents. However, if necessary, after the inclusion in the Register, entrepreneurs can submit their own additional information, for example, on their products, contract execution history, as well as on participation in the partnership programs.

Now the companies do not have to spend money and time to confirm their status. The state and municipal authorities, as well as potential partners will be able to verify this information independently and free of charge on the website of the SMB Register. In particular, the Register can be used to confirm the eligibility of small and medium-sized businesses, for example, for "supervisory" vacation.

The Unified Register is a publicly accessible database of small and medium-sized businesses, by reference to which it is possible to confirm the affiliation of a business entity to a of small or medium-sized category.

The creation of such a register will allow to:

- Reduce costs for businesses and public authorities associated with the need to confirm the status of small and medium enterprises to participate in support programs;

- Reduce the cost of major companies connected with the search for potential suppliers among a number of small and medium-sized enterprises;

- Ensure implementation of the "supervisory vacations" for small businesses;

- Improve the quality of support measures for small and medium-sized businesses.