The state has long dreamed that Russians would work only for a white salary Source: Artem Ustyuzhanin / E1.RU Earning more without paying taxes, or not paying alimony – these are the main reasons why Russians agree to work with salaries in envelopes. According to the Ministry of Labor, almost 10 million people work in the shadow sector of the Russian economy. The number seems huge. However, the share of Russians working in the “gray” zone (almost 12% of the economically active population) is comparable to global indicators. Most informal workers live in large regions: Moscow and Rostov regions, Krasnodar and Krasnoyarsk. Most often, “gray” salaries are received in business, construction, security, accounting and entertainment – these are the conclusions of the Ministry of Labor. The state is strengthening measures to combat the shadow sector. The goal has been set: to reduce the level of informal employment by 30% by 2026. To achieve this, the Ministry of Labor plans to strengthen control over violating companies, stimulate official employment and index pensions for working citizens. Why fight the shadow sector of the economy, obviously. This poses a serious problem for Russia: it leads to loss of tax revenues, worsening working conditions and increased corruption. However, it appears that the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. While the Ministry of Labor announces the fight against “gray” wages, the State Duma, at the proposal of the Ministry of Finance, is considering a bill on introducing a progressive scale of personal income tax. This, according to experts, could lead to an increase in the number of people receiving salaries in envelopes, as wealthy citizens look for ways to avoid high taxes. Although the authorities look at this without fear. The President, for example, recently stated that the increase in personal income tax will affect no more than 3.2% of taxpayers. He also noted that changes in the tax system should be adopted; according to plans, in August “Big Tax Brother” controls all your expenses – the Federal Tax Service of Russia is a very powerful IT system. And even those people who think that the tax authorities cannot see the movements of their finances, calculations and other procedures, they are very mistaken, because all operations are visible to several generations,” says financial consultant Tatyana Volkova MSK1.RU. Tax and audit expert Dmitry Shumeiko, in his words, creates an “explosive mixture” of various methods for obtaining operational data, and from many sources it becomes absolutely simple to obtain information about almost every employee,” says Shumeiko. — Questions from employees (including fired employees), stress from calling the tax office and more severe consequences for concealing real taxes and amounts of income – all this makes it unprofitable for employers to hide real wages, which few want to satisfy. with tax authorities or researchers on this issue, Shumeiko believes that the legalization of “gray” wages will continue, although not quickly. At the same time, little will change for the employee himself now, and a little later in some industries there will even be an increase in wages. stop so that the employer (company owner) has the opportunity to keep the costs of production and provision of services at the level of the purchasing power of clients. One of the reasons is precisely the increase in the tax burden. They will hide taxes by splitting salaries in different legal entities. However, not all MSK1.RU experts are full of optimism about the fight of Daniil Egorov’s department with “gray” salaries. The owner and head of the TOBU Accounts Chamber, Ekaterina Zelenskaya, is confident that the number of recipients of salaries in envelopes in Russia will only increase. “Although the new tax scale does not affect the vast majority of workers with gray salaries, it creates a negative background, a fashion for the trend “the state will take everything away, it’s better not to show anything,” says Zelenskaya. — Secondly, various social contributions and social benefits make it advantageous to have low-income status. Thus, even before the announcement of amendments to the Tax Code, people prefer (especially in the southern regions) to actually have two salaries: one in the southern regions. the form of benefits for each child as a poor person, and the second in an envelope, everyone wins here: the company saves on taxes, and the employee is twice as rich. “Gray” salaries are like corruption: if both parties are happy, then so be it; it is almost impossible to catch them, because no one will go to write a statement to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. So if both the employee and the employer are satisfied with the “gray” salary, then this will be “Another question. An ever smaller percentage of the population agrees to work in such conditions,” says Polina Gusyatnikova, senior managing partner of the company. law firm PG Partners. – Most often we are not talking about permanent work, but about several one-time part-time jobs for small amounts. Therefore, the state’s tax losses are not as great as one might assume; Gusyatnikova predicts that at the initial stage of tax reform, many companies and especially employees will try to avoid increasing personal income tax – a separation of salaries and registration is possible. in different legal entities. Thus, we will be able to see the positive effect of the tax reform only in a few years,” Gusyatnikova is full of pessimism. “And in what case would it be realistic to count on the legalization of wages?” income tax As the experiment with the self-employed, for whom the tax was set at 4% and 6%, showed, this really works. A much larger percentage of the population officially began to pay taxes because the amount to pay was small. much easier than having problems with the tax authorities. But when it comes to worsening conditions, it is logical that people will try to hide their income, at least in the initial stages.
What will change for Russians after tax increases, which are becoming increasingly difficult to avoid; the fight against gray wages – June 24, 2024
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