According to the law of 12.01.1996 No. 7-FZ (as amended on 23.12.2003), a non-profit organization is an organization that does not have profit making as the main goal of its activities and does not distribute the profit received among the participants.
At the same time, non-profit organizations have the right to carry out entrepreneurial activities in order to achieve their statutory goals and have a number of tax benefits.
Non-profit organizations can be created to achieve social, charitable, cultural, educational, scientific and managerial goals, to protect the health of citizens, develop physical culture and sports, meet the spiritual and other non-material needs of citizens, protect the rights, legitimate interests of citizens and organizations, resolve disputes and conflicts, providing legal assistance, as well as for other purposes aimed at achieving public benefits.
The Civil Code of the Russian Federation and the Law "On non-profit organizations" define the following organizational and legal forms of non-profit organizations:
- Consumer cooperatives
- Funds
- Institutions
- Non-Profit Partnerships
- State corporations
Public and religious organizations (associations)
A common feature of public and religious organizations (associations) is the purpose of their creation - they are created to meet spiritual or other non-material needs. Another sign is the community of interests of uniting citizens.Read more about public organizations and their registration in the Public Organizations section.
consumer cooperatives.
A consumer cooperative is a voluntary association of citizens and legal entities on the basis of membership in order to meet the material and other needs of the participants, carried out by combining property shares by its members. Unlike other forms of non-profit organizations, income from the entrepreneurial activities of a cooperative is distributed among its members.Funds
The features of the fund as a non-profit organization are - the absence of membership, the property base, created through voluntary property contributions. The Foundation is a kind of non-profit "bank", where funds are first accumulated through donations, and then distributed to the Foundation's statutory goals - social, cultural, educational and other socially useful purposes. The Foundation is required to publish annual reports on the use of its assets.Institutions
An institution is an organization created by the owner to carry out managerial, socio-cultural and other functions of a non-commercial nature and financed in part or in full by this owner. At the same time, the property is assigned to the institution on the basis of the right of operational management, and not ownership. If the funds of the institution are insufficient, the owner shall bear subsidiary liability for its obligations.Non-Profit Partnerships
A non-profit partnership is a membership-based non-profit organization established by citizens and (or) legal entities to assist its members in carrying out activities aimed at achieving socially beneficial goals. A distinctive feature of a non-profit partnership is the right of its members to a part of the property in the event of liquidation of the partnership or withdrawal from it. A non-profit partnership is convenient as an association of freelancers (lawyers, doctors, writers, etc.)Autonomous non-profit organizations
An autonomous non-profit organization is a non-profit organization without membership, established by citizens and (or) legal entities on the basis of voluntary property contributions for the purpose of providing services in the field of education, healthcare, culture, science, law, physical culture, etc. The property transferred by the founders of the organization, belongs to her by right of ownership.This form of non-profit organizations is most convenient for activities in the service sector.
Associations of legal entities (associations and unions)
Commercial and non-commercial organizations may voluntarily unite into associations (unions) in order to coordinate their activities, as well as to represent and protect common property interests. Members of an association (union) retain their independence and the rights of a legal entity.State Corporation
A new form of non-profit organizations introduced by Federal Law No. 140-FZ of July 8, 1999A state corporation is a non-profit organization without membership, established by the Russian Federation on the basis of a property contribution and created to carry out social, managerial or other socially useful functions. It is created on the basis of the law, which establishes the features of its legal status.
A non-profit organization is considered established as a legal entity from the moment of its state registration. Currently, the state registration of non-profit organizations (with the exception of public organizations) is carried out in the IMNS.
The founders of a non-profit organization, depending on its organizational and legal forms, may be citizens and (or) legal entities.
The number of founders of a non-profit organization is not limited, unless otherwise provided by federal law.
A non-profit organization may be founded by one person, with the exception of cases of establishing non-profit partnerships, associations (unions) and other cases provided for by federal law.
To register a non-profit organization according to the law, the following constituent documents are required:
- Charter approved by the founders (participants) for a public organization (association), foundation, non-profit partnership and autonomous non-profit organization;
- The memorandum of association concluded by their members and the articles of association approved by them for the association or union;
- The decision of the owner to establish the institution and the charter approved by the owner for the institution.
Non-profit organizations (hereinafter referred to as NPOs) are one of two large groups of legal entities (the other group includes commercial organizations). The main distinguishing feature of non-profit organizations is (and this follows from their very name) that they are not created for the purpose of carrying out commercial activities.
What is an NPO, goals of creation, independence
Non-profit organizations are understood as those created for educational, cultural and other purposes specified in their constituent documents, and:
- not having as the main goal the extraction of profit;
- not distributing the profit received as a result of their activities among their participants (clause 1, article 50 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).
An indicative list of goals for the creation of NCOs is enshrined in clause 2 of Article 2 N 7-FZ “On Non-Commercial Organizations” dated 12.01.1996 (hereinafter - the Federal Law on NCOs). According to this law, NGOs can be created for:
- achievement of social, charitable, spiritual, cultural, educational, scientific and managerial goals;
- development of physical culture and sports, protection of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens, etc.
This list is not exhaustive, this paragraph provides that NCOs can be created for other purposes aimed at achieving public benefits.
In addition, the goals of the creation and activities of NPOs are fixed by separate federal laws.
As you know, all organizations in Russia can be divided into three sectors: government, commercial and non-commercial. And if everything is clear with the first two types, then the last one makes us think. What objects are non-profit organizations? We invite you to reflect on this further.
Non-profit organizations are...
First a definition. NPO, non-profit organization - a structure that does not set its main goal to make a profit, and also does not distribute it among its participants.
The goals of the NPO are as follows:
- cultural;
- social;
- charitable;
- scientific;
- educational;
- managerial;
- political;
- protection of the health of citizens;
- development of sports, physical culture;
- satisfaction of non-material (spiritual) needs;
- protection of legitimate interests of individuals and legal entities;
- legal assistance;
- other things useful to society.
Objects that belong to non-profit organizations have the right to engage in entrepreneurial activities. But only if it is aimed at achieving the main public goal.
It is important to note that non-profit organizations that perform certain functions of self-government bodies, the state, and at the same time do not resort to the help of these, are called non-governmental.
Characteristics of NCOs
In order to more clearly present the structures that relate to NGOs, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the following characteristics:
- Founder: any person.
- Personnel: recruited staff and involved persons.
- Monetary remuneration of participants: full-time employees - salary, work of volunteers, volunteers is not paid, services of involved persons - a contract for the provision of services.
- The main objectives of the activity: as a rule, socially significant.
- Funding sources: state budget (but only if the founder of the organization is the state), borrowed capital, business proceeds (with a number of restrictions), investments and donations. There are also membership fees. Moreover, the vast majority of NGOs exist at the expense of them, without resorting to the above sources. Grants are often used, including state ones. Also, many NGOs make them their sole source of funding.
Types of NGOs
Non-profit organizations include:
- Cooperatives: garage-building, consumer (credit, housing, agricultural, marketing, horticultural, supply, livestock, gardening, processing).
- Unions.
- Associations.
- Universities.
- Autonomous non-profit associations.
- State corporations.
- Charity organisations.
- State companies.
- Cossack societies.
- Natural, national parks, reserves.
- Municipal and state budgetary, state and autonomous entities.
- non-governmental associations.
- Non-commercial partnership.
- HOA, GK, ZhK.
- Various kinds of social associations: political parties, public funds, movements, organizations, trade unions, foundations of public initiative.
- Associations of legal entities.
- Mutual insurance companies.
- Unions of employers.
- Communities of small indigenous peoples.
- Religious association, group, organization.
- Country, horticultural, horticultural non-profit association.
- Territorial public association.
- Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
NKO hybrid forms
Speaking about which organizations are non-profit, it is important to note hybrid forms with commercial (private) structures. These include:
- Companies in the public interest (UK).
- Public Benefit Corporation (USA).
- Small-income limited liability company (USA).
- Corporation with socially useful purposes (Germany).
- Charitable Limited Liability Company (Germany).
NGOs in Russia
In Russia, more than 30 types of NPOs belong to the forms of non-profit organizations. Many of them have similar functions, and the differences are only in the names. All associations are regulated by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Chapter 4, paragraph 6), the Federal Law "On non-profit organizations". The specific activities of individual NCOs are controlled by relevant legislative acts.
We list some features of the activities of these organizations in the Russian Federation:
- Foreign grants received are not taxed.
- Since 2008, special presidential grants have been allocated to support NGOs.
- In 2015, the so-called register of undesirable organizations was introduced. Any international or foreign NPO that poses a threat to the Russian state system can get there.
- In 2017, a decree was issued requiring the issuance of grants to those non-profit organizations that conduct socially significant, civic activities.
NCOs in our country are a fairly common type of associations, numbering more than a dozen forms. They are united by common goals, combined characteristics of NCOs. In relation to such organizations, both general regulatory norms and specific ones apply.
Entrepreneurial activity of non-profit organizations is one of the sources of cash receipts, allowing them to successfully solve problems aimed at achieving the goals of their functioning. In this article, the reader will find information on whether NCOs can carry out entrepreneurial activities, in which cases the legislator grants NCOs the right to conduct it, and also learns how to obtain the legal right to perform certain types of work that brings income to the association.
Non-profit organizations as business entities
In accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. 50 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, a non-profit organization (NPO) is an association that does not pursue profit as a goal and does not distribute the funds received among its members. NPOs are created to solve socially significant social, economic, cultural, scientific problems, protect the health of citizens and their physical development, as well as meet their non-material needs (clause 2, article 2 of the law "On Non-Commercial Organizations" dated 12.01.1996 No. 7).
According to paragraph 2 of Art. 2 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation under the entrepreneurial activity of non-profit organizations (as well as commercial ones) is understood as an activity aimed at the regular extraction of income and carried out by an entrepreneur (or legal entity) independently, at his own risk. Profit can be obtained from the use of property, the sale of goods, the provision of services or the performance of work. The main feature that allows you to qualify income-generating activities as entrepreneurial is the systematic receipt of funds. Thus, making a profit from one-time transactions cannot be the basis for recognizing the activities of an organization or individual as entrepreneurial.
NCOs do not have the right to set income generation as the goal of their operation, respectively, formally, as a general rule, they are not subjects of entrepreneurial activity. Meanwhile, people who establish NPOs often face the question of whether non-profit organizations can carry out entrepreneurial activities, in addition to their main activities. We will answer it further.
Can non-profit organizations carry out activities that generate income
In paragraph 2 of Art. 24 of Law No. 7 states that NPOs have the right to take actions that generate income, while simultaneously observing the following conditions:
- funds received in the course of income-generating activities are directed to finance its statutory goals (money can be used to pay for the labor of persons with certain physical disabilities, such as blindness, deafness, etc., to improve the material and technical base of the association and pay utility bills accounts, as well as to solve various socially significant tasks);
- the possibility of performing such actions is fixed in the constituent documents of the company.
At the same time, according to paragraph 3 of Art. 24 of Law No. 7, an NPO is obliged to keep records of income and expenses arising from its entrepreneurial and other profitable activities.
NPOs with the right to carry out entrepreneurial activities
The list of NPO forms is established by the provisions of Chapter II of Law No. 7, according to which the following persons have the right to independently engage in entrepreneurship:
- public and religious organizations (Article 6);
- communities of indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation (Article 6.1);
- Cossack societies (Article 6.2);
- funds (Article 7);
- state corporations (Article 7.1);
- state-owned companies (Article 7.2);
- non-profit organizations, provided that they do not have the status of a self-regulatory organization (Article 8);
- private institutions (art. 9);
- State Unitary Enterprises and Municipal Unitary Enterprises (Article 9.1);
- budgetary institutions (Article 9.2);
- autonomous NGOs (art. 10).
In addition, some NCOs have the right to engage in income-generating activities by creating business companies or participating in them. For example, funds (Article 7 of Law No. 7), autonomous NPOs (Clause 5, Article 123.24 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).
The above list of NGOs is open. The current Civil Code of the Russian Federation establishes additional organizational and legal forms in which a non-profit association can operate. However, not every one of them gets the right to engage in entrepreneurship - in some cases this is partially or completely prohibited by law.
Legislative restrictions on the implementation of entrepreneurial activities of NPOs
In accordance with par. 2 p. 2 art. 24 of Law No. 7, the legislator may impose certain restrictions on the income-generating activities of individual NPOs. Examples of such restrictions are:
- a ban on participation in business companies that include third parties for charitable organizations (clause 4, article 12 of the law “On Charitable ...” dated 18.08.1995 No. 135);
- establishing a closed list of activities that political parties can engage in (information, printing and advertising activities, provided that they are aimed at promoting the party; manufacturing and selling objects with their own symbols; selling and renting / renting movable and immovable property belonging to the party , paragraphs 3 and 4 of article 31 of the law “On political ...” dated 11.07.2001 No. 95);
- a complete ban on entrepreneurship for bar associations (Clause 10, Article 29 of the Law “On the Bar…” dated May 31, 2002 No. 63), etc.
Can a non-profit organization provide paid services?
Based on the definition of entrepreneurial activity given in paragraph 2 of Art. 2 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, we can conclude that within the framework of its implementation, the company can not only produce goods or perform work, but also provide certain services. From the very essence of entrepreneurship, it follows that the provision of such services is carried out on a reimbursable basis. The legislator does not prohibit NGOs from engaging in entrepreneurial activities, and therefore does not exclude the possibility of them providing paid services. There is only one limitation: the money received must be used to achieve the goals of the functioning of the NPO, and not distributed among its founders (participants).
Don't know your rights?
At the same time, it is worth remembering that the paid services provided must be directly related to the goals of creating a company (clause 2, article 24 of law No. 7). For example, an association of educators and teachers may develop and sell teaching aids and textbooks, provide exam preparation services, or engage in tutoring. At the same time, it will not be able to produce food or provide services for holding ceremonial events. Violation of this rule may lead to the recognition of the concluded service agreement as null and void (clause 2 of article 168 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), as well as become the basis for the forced liquidation of the company on the basis of a court decision issued at the suit of a government agency or local government (clause 4 article 61 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).
Types of NPO activities
In accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. 24 of Law No. 7, an NPO can be engaged in one or more types of activities if it is:
- not prohibited by the current Russian legislation (the legislator may establish restrictions on the implementation of certain types of activities for certain categories of NCOs);
- corresponds to the goals of the functioning of the organization, fixed in its charter.
According to paragraph 2 of Art. 24 of Law No. 7, NCOs are entitled to carry out the following types of income-generating activities:
- production of goods and provision of services;
- purchase and sale of securities (stocks, bonds, etc.);
- purchase and sale of rights (both property and non-property);
- participation in business companies;
- obtaining the status of a contributor in limited partnerships.
Carrying out entrepreneurial activities, NCOs are not entitled to conclude transactions that contradict the types of activities and goals of functioning specified in the charter. That is why, when planning the registration of an NPO, one should consider in what direction the association will work and what kind of paid services it will provide.
In the event that the entrepreneurial activity of a non-profit organization requires obtaining a special permit for its implementation (license), such a permit will have to be issued in the manner prescribed by the law governing work in this area. The list of such activities is also determined by the current legislation, and no differences are provided for commercial and non-commercial organizations.
OKVED for NGOs
The basis for opening a new NCO is an application drawn up in the form R11001, approved by the order of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation “On approval ...” dated January 25, 2012 No. ММВ-7-6 / 25@. Sheet I of the said application must contain information about the activity codes of the registered association, selected in accordance with the All-Russian Classification of Economic Activities (OKVED), put into effect by the order of Rosstandart “On Acceptance ...” dated January 31, 2014 No. 14-st.
The application must indicate:
- code of the main activity of the association;
- codes of its additional activities.
For certain types of NPO activities, special codes apply. For example, the code 87.90 can be used by organizations providing residential care services:
- in orphanages;
- children's boarding schools and hostels;
- temporary shelters for the homeless, etc.
If an NPO plans to conduct additional activities that qualify as entrepreneurial, it will need to indicate the codes corresponding to it in an additional box. At the same time, it should be remembered that the entrepreneurial activities of non-profit organizations
should be interconnected with the main direction of functioning for which they are created.
The selected OKVED codes must also be indicated in the charter of the NPO submitted for registration.
How to change the selected OKVED codes
If, however, the founders (participants) of an NPO have decided that it is necessary to perform certain actions that qualify as entrepreneurial after the constituent documents have been registered, they will have to be amended.
To do this, an application is submitted to the registration authority, drawn up in the form P13001. It indicates the updated OKVED codes chosen by the founders of the NPO. The document will need to be accompanied by a decision to amend, as well as a new version of the charter. You will have to pay for editing. The amount of the state duty, in accordance with paragraph 3 of Art. 333.33 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, is 800 rubles.
Violation of this rule entails the imposition of a fine on the representative of the NPO, the amount of which varies from 5 thousand to 10 thousand rubles. (Clause 4, Article 14.25 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).
So, the answer to the question of whether non-profit organizations can engage in entrepreneurial activities is in some cases positive. An NPO has the right to engage in activities that bring profit, but on the condition that the funds received will be used by it to achieve the goals of its functioning, fixed in the charter. NPOs are not entitled to distribute earned assets among their own founders (participants). In addition, there should be no additional restrictions on the implementation of such actions established by the current federal laws. If an NPO plans to conduct commercial activities, it will have to enter information about this in the registration application, indicating in it the OKVED codes corresponding to the chosen direction. In the course of carrying out entrepreneurial activities, non-profit organizations may provide paid services to the population and legal entities, provided that this does not contradict the statutory goals of the association.
Non-Profit Organizations - legal entities that do not pursue profit making as the main goal of their activities and do not distribute the profit received among the participants (Article 50 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).
Separation of non-profit organizations from commercial ones:
- for non-profit organizations economic activity is auxiliary, ensuring their participation in the property turnover, and the civil law status of these organizations is of a secondary nature;
- commercial organizations carry out economic activity, which is the main one for them and is fully regulated by civil law.
Unlike commercial organizations, non-profit organizations are not professional participants in property relations. Therefore, for non-commercial legal entities, the legislator establishes special (targeted) legal capacity(clause 1 of article 49 of the Civil Code) and allows the use of their property only to achieve the goals specified in their constituent documents (clause 4 of article 213 of the Civil Code).
The performance of non-commercial legal entities in civil circulation is due to the need for material support for their core activities, which should not be entrepreneurial.
Non-profit organizations can be created to achieve social, charitable, cultural, educational, scientific and managerial goals, to protect the health of citizens, develop physical culture and sports, meet the spiritual and other non-material needs of citizens, protect the rights, legitimate interests of citizens and organizations, resolve disputes and conflicts, provision of legal assistance, as well as for other purposes aimed at achieving public benefits (Article 2 of the Federal Law of 12.01.1996 N 7-FZ "On Non-Commercial Organizations").
Thus, non-profit organizations carry out activities aimed at the formation of public goods, they are the strongholds of the civil society infrastructure. They participate not in production, but in the redistribution of material goods (the national product). In all other respects, non-profit organizations are full-fledged and permanent participants in property turnover along with commercial organizations.
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A non-profit organization can be created as a result of:
- its institutions;
- reorganization of another non-profit organization of the same legal form;
- as a result of reorganization in the form of transformation of a legal entity of another organizational and legal form (in cases provided for by federal laws).
The decision to create a non-profit organization as a result of its establishment is taken by its founders (founder).
A non-profit corporate organization is the owner of its property.
The charter of a non-commercial corporate organization may provide that decisions on the creation by the corporation of other legal entities, as well as decisions on the participation of the corporation in other legal entities, on the creation of branches and on the opening of representative offices of the corporation, are taken by the collegial body of the corporation.
A non-profit organization is considered to be established as a legal entity from the moment of its state registration in accordance with the procedure established by law, owns or manages separate property, is liable (with the exception of cases established by law) for its obligations with this property, can acquire and exercise property in its own name. and non-property rights, bear obligations, be a plaintiff and defendant in court.
A non-profit organization must have an independent balance sheet and (or) estimate.
A non-profit organization is created without limiting the period of activity, unless otherwise established by the constituent documents of a non-profit organization.
A non-profit organization shall have the right to open accounts in banks in the territory of the Russian Federation and outside its territory in accordance with the established procedure, with the exception of cases established by federal law.
A non-profit organization has a seal with the full name of this non-profit organization in Russian.
A non-profit organization has the right to have:
- stamps and letterheads with their name;
- symbols - emblems, coats of arms, other heraldic signs, flags and hymns, the description of which must be contained in the constituent documents.
List of non-profit organizations
institution- a unitary non-profit organization created by the owner to carry out managerial, socio-cultural or other functions of a non-profit nature (Article 123.21 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).
Autonomous non-profit organization - a unitary non-profit organization that does not have membership and was created on the basis of property contributions from citizens and (or) legal entities in order to provide services in the areas of education, healthcare, culture, science and other areas of non-profit activity (Article 123.24 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).
religious organization - a voluntary association of citizens of the Russian Federation permanently and legally residing on the territory of the Russian Federation or other persons, formed by them for the purpose of joint confession and dissemination of faith and registered in the manner prescribed by law as a legal entity (local religious organization), an association of these organizations (centralized religious organization), as well as the organization and (or) the governing or coordinating body created by the specified association in accordance with the law on freedom of conscience and on religious associations for the purpose of joint confession and dissemination of faith (Article 123.26
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