Tax regime and bookkeeping for an Ozon seller: what sellers say they chose

Two decisions come before your first sale on Ozon: the legal form you register under, and the tax regime you sit on. All of it below comes from eight Russian seller videos, five watched end to end — sellers describing their own arrangements, not official documentation. This is not tax advice. Every rate and threshold belongs to its video's period and has moved since. Confirm the current rule, or ask an accountant.

Three legal forms, and the self-employed gate

Four videos list the same three: self-employed status (самозанятый), sole trader (ИП), limited company (ООО). One rule does most of the sorting: on self-employed status you may not resell somebody else's goods, only what you made yourself. The seller behind the "Костя на Озон" channel says that clause decided it for him, and recounts an acquaintance who registered anyway, sold a little, and lost the contract.

A second seller puts roughly 90% of marketplace sellers on sole-trader status and recommends it, reserving the company for a partner, a very large operation (he names a 130-employee ceiling), or a plan to sell or bequeath the business. Its cost is cash flexibility: the money is not yours, you pay yourself a salary, and "an accountant does 100% of this". It also needs a charter, a founders' resolution and 10,000 ₽ of share capital. One detail matters in clothing: trademarks, certificates, declarations of conformity and refusal letters start at sole trader; below that a brand is "just a word backed by no document".

The numbers are where the sources fall out, so both go in. One puts the annual turnover ceiling at 2.4 million ₽, cross-checking himself — "that is 200,000 ₽ a month, that's your limit". Another names 4 million ₽. The rate is contested too: all three give the same rule, 4% on sales to individuals and 6% to legal entities, but two reason that buyers are overwhelmingly individuals and use 4%, while the third notes that the marketplace transfers the money and is a legal entity, so 6%. Ask an accountant which applies.

The bans carry no such disagreement, and they land on clothing sellers directly: food including home-made, alcohol, tobacco, goods subject to mandatory labelling — footwear, leather clothing, bed linen, excisable and hazardous goods. Both videos also note a receipt per individual sale and a one-off 10,000 ₽ allowance for first-time registrants.

The simplified regime: 6% or 15%

Two regimes get discussed in practice: simplified (УСН) and general (ОСНО). The simplified one has two arms.

Arm	Base	Worked example in the video
6% on income	Turnover	Plus 1% over 300,000 ₽ a year; the seller calls the result "7%". 1 million ₽ turnover → 70,000 ₽ tax (2025)
Income minus expenses, ~15%	Documented profit	1 million ₽ sold, Ozon remitted about 400,000 ₽, documented cost of goods deducted, roughly 50,000 ₽ payable (2025)

The second arm looks cheaper on paper, yet both sellers chose the first, for one reason: an expense is only an expense if you can document it. Cargo or a freelancer paid from a personal card, goods bought without an invoice — none of it deducts. One warns against "I'll switch to income-minus-expenses and book a million in costs"; the other adds that the tax authority watches 15% sole traders closely, making an accountant near-mandatory.

A podcast adds an Ozon-specific claim: a seller, citing his accountant, says Ozon pays the loyalty discount (СПП) in points, offsets those points against commission and part of advertising, and that points cannot be booked as an expense — so the expense side never swells enough for income-minus-expenses to pay. One seller, one accountant; verify it first.

On the general regime the same seller is candid — "I have no practical experience, what follows is a sort of encyclopedia entry" — before giving sole trader 13%, 15% above 5 million ₽ and up to 22% above 50 million ₽ from 2025; company profit tax 20%, then 25% from 2025; VAT 20% on most goods, 10% on some. File no application and you land there automatically.

The overlooked fixed cost is insurance contributions — "around 50,000 ₽ a year, a little more" in one video, a monthly notice of about 4,000 ₽ plus 500 ₽ of bank charges in the other, payable on zero turnover. Hence the tip: registration takes seven days, so order stock first or pay for months while waiting.

The VAT threshold: a different number in every video

The clearest illustration of why figures carry dates. Four videos put the threshold in four different places:

• A 2025 video: past 60 million ₽ of annual turnover VAT applies even on the simplified regime, whose ceiling had risen from 200 to 450 million ₽. Rates: 20% with input deduction, or 5% to 250 million and 7% from 250 to 450 million.
• An autumn 2025 news round-up: a bill passed at first reading proposing, from 1 January 2026, a 10 million ₽ threshold, a headline VAT rate of 22% on the general regime, and abolition of the patent regime for retail and freight. The presenter's caveat: a first reading only, it may change.
• A summer 2026 video: the threshold in force for 2026 is 20 million ₽; the cut to 15 million planned for 2027 was suspended, and 20 million is fixed until 2029.

That last seller crossed 20 million in 2025 and changed regime rather than move to VAT. The first seller's arithmetic shows why: 5% on top of 6% makes 11%, against the old 7%. Reduced regions change that — some apply 1% instead of 6% (Kalmykia and Kurgan get named), where 1% + 5% comes to 6% and "nothing has really changed". The threshold is also measured on gross marketplace turnover, which, she says, "inflates once you count all the costs we carry": your account may receive 400,000 ₽ while the threshold sees a million.

What the marketplace report does and does not tell you

Ozon's documents arrive monthly (Wildberries issues them weekly), under Начисления и документы: "документы" holds the accounting documents, "начисления" the sales analytics with bonuses and withholdings.

• Отчёт о реализации, the sales report, is the base document: "реализовано" is what Ozon sold, "возвращено" the returns. Declarable income is that total less returns.
• УПД and the ancillary-service documents break out withholdings: commission, logistics, storage, delivery.
• Negative lines on the finance screen are services: brand promotion, seller bonuses, "starred goods", search promotion. The closing balance is what actually reaches your account.
• Отчёт о взаиморасчётах, the reconciliation report: opening balance, Ozon's purchase of goods, payment orders, the statement of work and the sales reports in one document.

The critical fact is in that last item: the tax authority receives this reconciliation report from the marketplace and compares it with the income you declared. The failure mode as he puts it — one figure arrives in your account, a completely different one must be declared. Sales documents appear by the 8th of the following month and reach your accounting software through the electronic document system (ЭДО) in the same window, counting as originals. A self-employed seller sums four: sales, remittances, reconciliation, and the premium statement for settlements in points.

The bookkeeping mistakes sellers warn about

1. Declaring only what landed in the bank. Two videos independently call this the beginner's principal mistake, with the same consequence: penalties. Tax is computed on the whole turnover.
2. Treating undocumented spend as an expense. Cargo or a freelancer paid from a personal card, goods bought without an invoice — none of it deducts.
3. Choosing the form too late. Changing regime afterwards is hard, and will not happen without an accountant.
4. Never keeping the income and expenditure ledger. A sole trader since 2017 says that among a thousand-plus students he never saw one fill it in, then adds this is no reason to skip it.
5. Skipping the quarterly payment. Remit by the 25th of the month after the quarter closes. The same seller pays once a year, and names the risk: the tax authority can block the account and debit it.
6. Overpaying for accounting. The advice is a local accountant: 3,000 ₽ a year for a sole trader with ~5,000 transactions (2025); another cites 3,000 ₽ via a bank for the annual return, and 5,000 ₽ a month with VAT.

Short summary

• Self-employed status is for people selling what they make; labelled goods such as footwear and leather clothing are barred.
• Its ceiling is given as 2.4 and as 4 million ₽, its rate as 4% and 6% — both contradictory.
• Most sellers use sole trader plus 6% on income, because an expense only counts if documented.
• Contributions fall due on zero turnover; registration takes seven days, so order stock first.
• The VAT threshold appears as 60, 10, 20 and 15 million ₽, measured on gross marketplace turnover.
• The tax authority gets the reconciliation report from Ozon; your declaration must match it.

Again: this is what sellers report, not tax advice. Rates and thresholds move, so base your decision on current law or on your accountant. Commbot carries tax as its own line in the profit calculation; updating the rate is still the seller's job.