The number of registered self-employed in Russia has reached 9 million, the press service of the Federal Tax Service (FTS) reported on Tuesday, November 28.
Over the past year, the number of self-employed Russians has grown by about one and a half times. Moreover, since the launch of the program in January 2019, its participants have earned 2.9 trillion rubles and paid more than 120 billion rubles in taxes.
"Over the entire period of this tax regime, the self-employed have generated more than 1.6 billion checks, the amount of the average check is 1840,8 rubles. Every day, more than 5.<> thousand people are registered as new payers of professional income tax," the Federal Tax Service noted.
Recall that the self-employed include people who work for themselves, receive money for their services from individuals and legal entities, do not have an employer and do not attract additional workers to their activities. The annual income of citizens with this status should not exceed 2.4 million rubles.
"A big advantage of self-employment is the almost complete absence of any bureaucratic barriers. It's very easy to sign up for the program and get started. The tax payment system is as simple as possible, and the tax rates themselves are extremely low by all world standards," Pavel Seagal, First Vice President of the All-Russian Public Organization of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Opora Russia, told RT.
Self-employed people pay professional income tax (PIT). When working with individuals, its rate is 4%, and when settling accounts with individual entrepreneurs and organizations, it is 6%. In addition, program participants are exempt from paying insurance premiums and the need to keep records.
You can obtain the status of self-employed using the My Tax mobile application, on the website of the Federal Tax Service, through a bank or the public services portal. At the same time, registered participants in the program automatically receive a tax deduction in the amount of 10 thousand rubles.
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- © Vitaly Ankov
According to the Federal Tax Service, the main activities of the self-employed are taxi services, repair, marketing, sale of clothes and other products of their own production, delivery of goods, apartment rental, training, as well as photos, videos and printing. In addition, a large number of NAP payers work in the IT sector, finance, beauty and catering.
"Previously, many people were scared off by the fact that in order to start their own business, you need to collect a lot of papers and go to different authorities for a long time. You don't need any of this to register as self-employed. Business, in turn, saves money with such cooperation, primarily on maintaining the staff: you do not need your own employees to perform a number of project work, since you can conclude an agreement with the self-employed," said Artem Deev, head of the analytical department at AMarkets, in an interview with RT.
Today, about half of small and medium-sized businesses use the services of the self-employed with varying regularity. Most often, entrepreneurs and companies from the fields of information technology, tourism, housing and communal services, consulting, transportation and catering resort to this form of cooperation, according to the results of a survey by Opora Russia.
"In more than half of the cases, the self-employed are involved in temporary projects, one-time work, or certain tasks are outsourced to them. They are less likely to be hired for remote work (33.4%) or seasonal work (17.1%)," the study says.
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- © Christin Klose / dpa-tmn
From January 1, 2019, Russians began to pay NAP in Moscow, the Moscow and Kaluga regions, as well as in the Republic of Tatarstan. In 2020, a special tax regime for the self-employed was introduced in all other regions, and since 2023, the initiative has been operating in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, as well as in the city of Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
By the beginning of November this year, most of the self-employed were registered in Moscow (1.5 million people), the Moscow region (621 thousand) and St. Petersburg (574 thousand). In addition, the program is popular in the Krasnodar Territory (425,293 people), Tatarstan (258,256), Dagestan (249,202), as well as in the Rostov (189,<>), Sverdlovsk (<>,<>), Samara (<>,<>) and Novosibirsk (<>,<>) regions.
Labor legalization
According to Artem Deev, the increase in the number of self-employed citizens contributes to the "whitewashing" of the Russian labor market. This, in turn, has a positive effect on the budget and the country's economy as a whole, the expert believes.
"First of all, tax collection is increasing. Secondly, the country's leadership is beginning to see a more complete picture of employment, as a result of which unemployment statistics are improving. Thirdly, there is an opportunity to develop further support measures for small and micro businesses in a more concrete and targeted way, increasing their contribution to the country's economy," the source explained.
It is assumed that the program will be valid until 2028 inclusive. According to the Federal Tax Service, tax rates for the self-employed will not change during this entire period.
It is noteworthy that more than half of those who pay NAP today did not register their income at all. Against the backdrop of such an active exit of Russians from the gray zone of the labor market, the authorities do not rule out the possibility of extending the program after 2028, as Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin previously stated.
"This is a serious legalization. People believed, people are comfortable. And, of course, in this sense, we need to continue to look at the results... Together we will sum up the results. Let the experiment pass, and then we'll decide together. Of course, we will extend it, but the conditions will need to be discussed," the head of the Cabinet said.