The Specifics of Accounting Policy Formation in Russian IT companies

The article discusses the issues of accounting policies development in one of the priority sectors of the digital economy: the IT industry (on the example of the Russian Federation). The purpose of the research is to identify the most significant accounting policy elements of IT companies based on statistical methods and develop recommendations for their use in practice. To do this, we have selected 10 organizations of different sizes based on the level of revenue they received in the reporting year 2018. Then a correlation and regression analysis was performed in Stata app. Accounting net profit is taken as the resulting indicator that reflects the efficiency of accounting in the company. The relationship of this indicator with internal absolute and relative performance indicators of organizations was examined (revenue, cost, the residual value of intangible assets, R & D expenses, management expenses, other expenses, corporate income tax, autonomy coefficient, investment coverage coefficient), as well as an external factor, which is the level of inflation. It is proved that significant indicators for the analyzed industry are the cost of sales, the residual value of intangible assets, and the amount of corporate income tax. And among them, the greatest impact on accounting net profit is the cost indicator of intangible assets. This conclusion made it possible to outline alternative ways of accounting for intangible assets in relation to IT organizations taking into account the current Russian legislation; to offer brief recommendations on their reflection in accounting policies. Alternatives were also considered in respect of the method of depreciation, the changes in estimates of useful life, and the amortization method for an intangible asset revaluation. The article presents the issue of adopting one or another accounting policy option as an open question for further discussion.