Went into the army - returned with debts? Who will help mobilized entrepreneurs

But there is one category of citizens who turned out to be unprotected in the face of mobilization - these are entrepreneurs who have their own small or micro business.

Victoria Pavlova

Employees of large enterprises can receive a mobilization reservation if they support critical infrastructure, and if an employee is mobilized, then by law he has the right to return to his previous place of work within 3 months after returning from service. Plus, some large enterprises offer their own support programs for mobilized employees. At least some guarantee of stability.

But in Russia, according to the Federal Tax Service, as of September 10, 2022, there were 5,596,562 micro-enterprises employing 7,375,731 people. There are 1.3 employees per enterprise. That is, an entrepreneur is, in fact, the whole business. And in June 2022, the number of self-employed, who cannot have employees at all, exceeded 5 million people. In total, only officially in Russia there are more than 10 million people who can rely only on themselves.

Entrepreneurs (founders of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs) were remembered in the government only last week: two meetings were held with Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov, and on October 3, the government presented 6 support measures. Will they help? First, let's imagine what will happen if a typical IP with one or two employees is mobilized on a simplified taxation system with a rate of 6% of revenue or the founder of a similar LLC. Now this is the end of business, because a soldier cannot be an entrepreneur by law. But even if we close our eyes to this fact, a lot of problems remain.

First, all economic activity will stop. As a rule, in micro-enterprises, the founder performs a significant part of the duties - not only administrative ones. This means that all the successes of the competitive struggle will be lost, and upon returning from the army, you will have to start everything from scratch. But along with this, the entrepreneur will have a lot of obligations - sending to the army sometimes goes so fast that there is simply no time left to resolve everyday issues.

Secondly, there are employees who need to pay salaries (plus personal income tax and insurance premiums). In addition to the fact that there is nothing to pay, there will also be no one to carry out the accruals. A salary delay of more than 3 months is already a criminal liability. An entrepreneur may have obligations to suppliers, contracts must be paid. The entrepreneur must pay taxes. Who will do this and with what resources? Also not known. Theoretically, if the enterprise is idle for a long time, then there may not be any profit - then there will be no income tax. But the obligation to file a declaration is still there. And also an individual entrepreneur on the simplified tax system has an obligation to pay insurance premiums for himself, which in no way depend on revenue. This is 10802.75 rubles per quarter. In the end, a loan can be issued to a legal entity, but credit holidays do not apply to companies. And for subsidiary liability in case of bankruptcy, the founder can be attracted.

Mobilization for an entrepreneur with a micro business is the loss of income and the preservation of a mass of obligations with responsibility for their failure. And the provided support measures do not look sufficient.

Measures to support entrepreneurs in case of mobilization

- Soldiers are allowed to be business owners.

- A procedure will be developed for changing and terminating contracts for the supply of goods and services for state and municipal needs. Also, no penalties will be applied to those mobilized.

- Existing licenses will be renewed automatically

- The Ministry of Finance and the Federal Tax Service will postpone the deadlines for filing a declaration and paying taxes and other fees

- Loans and leasing for SMEs will be granted a grace period

- It will be possible to terminate lease agreements with the state without penalties.

The mobilized will be able to keep the business - this is already good. But this does not make it much easier: entrepreneurs are not exempted from payments, but only given a deferment. What will the entrepreneur get when he returns home? Only a huge debt on taxes, insurance premiums and loans. And, possibly, criminal liability for non-payment of salaries. Not the most pleasant prospect.

It is not surprising if in the near future there will be a wave of closure of individual entrepreneurs and legal entities with the departure of entrepreneurs to the number of self-employed, because everything is much simpler for them: I received revenue - I paid 4% or 6% of it. No income - pay nothing. And no additional obligations. For the state, this means a reduction in tax revenues from income tax (lower rates) and the loss of part of income tax revenues and insurance premiums: employees will simply move into the shadow sector. And the upcoming increase in social fees can only accelerate the departure of small and micro businesses into the shadows.

Mobilized entrepreneurs and their employees are potential unemployed, millions of people who will then be forced to earn money for their livelihood by any means, including criminal ones. This is especially true for regions where there are fewer employment options and outdoor surveillance cameras are less common. Add here the psychological state of those who returned from the war, and the picture of a bright near future throughout the country is getting closer to those very terrible 90s that we have been frightened with for so long.