The loyalty index of small businesses fell in the first half of 2018, as compared to the previous year, reaching 27 points, according to Inc.Russia referring to the study of Alfa-Bank titled “Small Business Pulse”. A more pessimistic attitude was previously noted only in November 2015, when the figure dropped to -38.

Results

The vast majority of respondents (83%) believe that the current economic situation in the country hinders the development of business, and the purchasing power of the population decreases (73%).

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50% of respondents think that the economic situation will become even worse in the next six months, and the purchasing power will continue to decline (59%).

More than half of respondents note a drop in their profits, another third of respondents observe a decrease in the number of customers and purchases.

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At the same time, they tend to assess the prospects of their own business in an optimistic way: the number of companies expecting growth in the indicators in the next six months has grown, as compared to last year.

Surprising as it is, the pessimism in expectations was demonstrated only by the representatives of IT companies, although they were earlier characterized by positive assessments.

The main problem of businesses now is considered to be high taxes - almost half of the respondents are worried about the growth of the burden, at the same time, tax control over small business and self-employed people is tightening.

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Besides, one of the factors of growth of pessimism is called the expected increase of value-added tax (VAT) up to 20%.

We recall that Moscow Department of Science, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship, in cooperation with the State Budgetary Institution "Small business of Moscow",  developed an online service that will help entrepreneurs to choose the most appropriate tax regime, the official website of the Moscow Mayor reports. The service "Choose the tax regime" is already available on the site of the State Budgetary Institution, working in the test mode. Over next two weeks the developers are planning to get feedback from entrepreneurs. How to chhose you tax regime online - find here or consult our attorneys.