Exciting mimicry: the Ministry of Finance is considering introducing restrictions for the self-employed

Irina Mishina

Today, according to the Federal Tax Service and the Ministry of Economic Development, more than 6 million self-employed people are registered in Russia. This regime is becoming increasingly popular due to preferential taxation and the absence of the need to fill out and submit a huge number of documents.

According to the Federal Tax Service of Russia, as of November 1, 2022, the total income received by the self-employed as a tax on professional activities amounted to more than 1.569 trillion rubles, and the amount of the calculated tax amounted to 60.4 billion rubles. These data were confirmed by the Ministry of Finance. Of these, in January-August 2022, the budgets of the regions and extra-budgetary funds received 22.8 billion rubles. professional income tax. Recall: the self-employed are not required to pay insurance premiums (although they have the right to voluntarily make contributions to the Pension Fund, and part of the tax automatically goes to the CHI fund). When concluding an agreement with individuals, the self-employed pay a tax of 4%, with an agreement with legal entities - 6%.

What does not suit the Ministry of Finance in the work of the self-employed

Auditor of the Accounts Chamber Andrey Baturkin pointed out the risk of “big business mimicking the self-employed”. But the biggest problem, he says, is the loss of off-budget funds, which receive less income, since insurance premiums are optional for the self-employed. Therefore, the Department of Tax Policy of the Russian Ministry of Finance considers it appropriate to limit the scope of the tax on professional income - the so-called regime for the self-employed, so that it is used primarily for the provision of services by individuals to individuals.

With such an initiative, in particular, was made by the deputy. Director of the Tax Policy Department of the Ministry of Finance Vitaly Prokayev at a round table in the Federation Council. He also drew attention to the problem of the flow of labor from hire to special treatment at the request of the employer:

“We are approached by the largest organizations and they say: “Can we have employees working under the professional activity tax (PAT) regime so as not to pay insurance premiums for them?”.

That is, by hiring a self-employed person, big business saves, which is no longer suitable for the Ministry of Finance.

“According to our department, the professional income tax regime should probably still be limited in application”, - Vitaly Prokayev emphasized. He recalled that when the regime was introduced in 2019, it was assumed that it would be used as a start for start-up entrepreneurs, either for additional income in addition to regular work, or for part-time work, tutoring, etc. Many people also switched to the self-employed regime. pensioners who were working part-time. They were considered working pensioners, but they were not deprived of bonuses and benefits.

Businesses should prepare for mass audits

“There are several tax regimes similar to the self-employed regime: these are individual entrepreneurs on simplified taxation and a patent. It is possible that these modes can somehow be modified and combined into one. As you know, when the self-employed regime was introduced, many closed individual entrepreneurs, since taxation in individual entrepreneurs is exorbitant and reporting is huge. But under the self-employed regime, the legislation prohibits a self-employed person from working with a company if he left it less than two years ago. The Federal Tax Service has a control and analytical system that monitors such direct violations and indirect signs of abuse. Perhaps the announced restrictions of the Ministry of Finance will affect stricter control over this. Businesses should prepare for mass inspections. It is probably worth preparing for a revision of the tax regime for the self-employed. In short, business is tormented by checks. This will lead to the fact that employers will begin to abandon the regime of the self-employed”, - said Dmitry Potapenko, economist, general director of MDG LLC .

What this “adjustment” will mean for the self-employed

“I think they will limit the ability of the self-employed to work with legal entities”, - says economist Dmitry Potapenko . - The fact that the tax bar will be raised, in my opinion, is unlikely. Now there are more and more self-employed, as they have a low tax and there is no red tape with documents. But it’s always like this with us: the authorities introduce a “light” mode, and then the door slams shut, and they start loading restrictions and reporting”.

Interestingly, according to the data for 2021, 54% of the self-employed did not previously have income in the form of wages in the year before registration. And that means they've stepped out of the shadows. This is about the introduction of any restrictions. The self-employed, legally paying income, are at risk of simply losing when restrictions are introduced.