Calculation of interest for using other people's money - useful advice

Unfortunately, it is often necessary to encounter a dishonest counterparty. The legislation of the Russian Federation offers as compensation for losses the possibility to recover from a defaulter a percentage for the illegal exploitation of outside assets. How do you calculate the interest for using other people's money, what significant moments need to be taken into account, what regulations should be based on - all this you will find in the article. A calculation will also be made on a specific example.

What is the use of other people's money?

In today's business environment, there is often a situation where the misappropriation of other assets, especially cash, is misused. These are such cases as:

• Delinquency in the payment of receivables.
• Untimely return of loans and credits.
• Illegal deduction of unnecessarily or erroneously paid sums.

The Civil Code (GK) regulates the use of other people's money by article 395. According to this article, it is necessary to pay a percentage for the illegal use of outside resources, since the delay in payment deprives the party that provided the assets an opportunity to extract income from them, if they are returned on time.

Specificity of money is that when they are in circulation, they certainly give a gain, regardless of how the owner will use them. Even if they are simply placed in a bank, they will already give a percentage. Therefore, it would be logical to assume that the repayment of money should always be in a larger amount. An exception is made only by contracts in which the condition of gratuitous use is prescribed in advance .

To make the calculation, you need to clarify a few important points: clearly set the time interval for which the penalty will be charged, that is, the date from which accrual and the date of completion of the accrual process, the interest rate and the procedure for calculating.

Determine the start date of the time interval

If you proceed from the general rule, then the start of interest calculation should be on the day after your counterparty has not fulfilled its obligations to you. Let's consider an example. The payment term for the goods is 31.07.2015, but the buyer did not pay. Therefore, the right to start charging penalties for delay arises from August 1.

It happens that the contract does not specify the exact date of payment, also in case of excessive or erroneous payment of funds, how to determine the time interval for calculating interest? In this case, they rely on the demand date. This means that the debtor must return the funds in a week's time from the fact that he was asked to pay. From the eighth day you can safely calculate the penalty for misuse of your money.

The demand must be in writing, preferably it should contain a note that the debtor has received the document.

Determine the end date of the time interval

Interest accruals occur throughout the period until the counterparty fulfills its obligation. Suppose, in our example, the buyer paid all the necessary amount to the settlement account of your company on 08/08/2015. Therefore, interest will be accrued for the period from August 1 to August 08.

Determine the interest rate

According to normative documents, the percentage of using other people's money must be calculated, relying on the refinancing rate, actual at the time of performance of the obligation. Since September 14, 2012 it has been approved at the rate of 8.25 and has not been revised since. Hence, it is necessary to take interest based on this rate.

Important specification. The norms of the first paragraph of Article 395 shall enter into force only if the parties to the contract have not registered the interest rate for calculating penalties for improper delinquencies. If the parties took this moment into the contract, the calculation is made based on the rate specified in the document, and not the refinancing rates, accordingly, the amounts will be significantly different.

We calculate

Let's now calculate the interest for using other people's money. We will assume that the debt for goods was 100,000 rubles. The period of use is eight days. 100 000/100 * 8.25 = 8250 rubles. This is the amount for the year, and we need to count for 8 days. According to regulatory documents, for calculating interest it is assumed that in a year 360 days, therefore, 8250/360 * 8 = 183.33 rubles.

Alternatively, you can use another formula to calculate:

Amount of Interest = (Rate of Refinancing * Sum of the Dollar * Amount of Days of the Passage) / 36000

We calculate according to this formula: (8.25 * 100000 * 8) / 36000 = 183.33 rubles. Use the calculation option that you find most simple.

On the Internet, you can also find special calculators that will allow you to quickly calculate the interest for using other people's money. You will be required to enter in the special table the amount of debt and the period for which it was formed. The calculation is done instantly. You will see not only the total amount, but also the amount for one day of delay in percent and rubles.

Under the same formula, a penalty is calculated for taxes and levies, for debts for utility services and other payments. Knowing this formula will help you independently verify the correctness of calculating the amount of interest on your debts.

Regulations

Calculation of interest for the use of other people's money is established by a number of normative documents:

• The most important document is the Civil Code, Article 395;
• The beginning of the time interval for calculating interest is established in accordance with the provisions of Article 191 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation;
• The end of the time interval for calculating interest and data by days in the year for calculating interest at the CBR rate are established by Decree dated 08.10.1998 year number 13/14, which was passed by the Plenum of the Supreme and the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation and 316 articles of the Russian Federation;
• Specification of the interest rate to be applied is contained in Resolution No. 6/8 of 01.07.1996, which was passed by the Plenum of the Supreme and the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation;
• Data on the refinancing rate can be found on the CBR website.

In fact, the calculation of interest for the use of other people's money contains even more nuances and subtleties, but in most cases the information mentioned above will be enough to expose the counterparties account and collect penalties.