Not everyone knows, but in addition to the regular bank cards that everyone has, there are also corporate ones. They are issued by the bank in the same way, and are linked to the account of a specific company.
A corporate card for legal entities is convenient because you can make transactions easily and quickly, as with a “regular” card. At the same time, expenses on it reduce the tax base.
Today we will talk about what a corporate bank card is, how to use it correctly, and what you can really pay with it.
Types of corporate cards
The main difference between a business card and an individual card is the link to a company account. At the same time, corporate bank cards can be either personalized or impersonal (unnamed). As you might guess, on the card of the first type they write the name of the specific employee to whom it is assigned – he is responsible for all write-offs on it, even if he gave the card to someone else to carry out transactions.
Anonymized cards can be used by any employee of the company. Obviously, in this case, it is much more difficult to understand who exactly made the transaction, so it is important not to give the card to everyone and be sure to collect documents confirming the purchase.
Accounting for expenses on a corporate card: what can and should be paid
In order to be able to correctly account for card expenses to reduce the tax base, they must be made in the interests of the business and within the framework of its activities.
So accounting for expenses on corporate cards has its own characteristics. You can’t buy everything – purchases that objectively do not fit into the scope of the company’s activities or do not meet its interests will not be counted by the tax authorities.
For example, an atelier can purchase fabric, and this is logical, but it will be more difficult to justify a purchase, for example, of food from the point of view of business benefits, although there is still a chance – perhaps the purchase took place in preparation for negotiations with partners. But here you have to work hard.
At the same time, there are a number of cost items that will be very easy to justify. Payment with a corporate card for standard items, such as office furniture, stationery and, of course, business trips. Business travel obviously grows business, so there will be no problem there. Therefore, it is very convenient to use corporate cards to pay for bookings on services like OneTwoTrip Business – this can significantly speed up the process of organizing a business trip.
What’s important: you can use your corporate card abroad. In this case, the bank itself will recalculate the funds at the internal rate in rubles. All settlements, including those for foreign transactions, will be reflected in Russian currency.
How to report on a corporate card
Nothing prevents you from using the card to pay for online purchases and services. However, according to the rules, you need to obtain from the seller an act of provision of services or a delivery note, cash register and sales receipts.
Accounting for transactions on corporate cards should include the preparation of the following reporting documents, which contain:
- name, number and date of issue;
- name of organization or individual entrepreneur, TIN;
- list of goods and services and their quantity;
- amount to be paid;
position, surname, initials of the employee of the selling company, personal signature and seal (if any).
An important point: if this list of data is entirely presented in the cash receipt, then it is no longer necessary to request a sales receipt.
