About how Anton Siluanov and Rustam Minnikhanov protect self-employed from tax inspections
Russian Minister of Finance has agreed to exempt self-employed from regular inspections, but the Federal Tax Service is concerned about it
The experiment on introduction of tax for self-employed in Tatarstan will be implemented without control inspections. This was agreed on 15 December by representatives of the ministry of finance, tax authorities and authorities of Tatarstan. Read more in the material of Realnoe Vremya.
Almost zero registration of self-employed: what to do?
The experiment on withdrawing self-employed from the shadow has not begun yet, but the federal government is concerned that the initiative on legalization can fail and how to make ''in-home'' nurses, tutors and plumbers enter the tax field. On 15 December, at a joint board of the Ministry of Finance of Tatarstan, Federal Tax Service in Tatarstan and Federal Treasury Department for the Republic of Tatarstan, first Deputy Prime Minister of Russia – Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov puzzled the financiers — whether it will be possible at all to get a tax from self-employed if their registration in the tax field is moving barely, while the experiment on the introduction of a tax on professional income starts from 1 January 2019.
''You have said that next year the republic participates in the experiment on the introduction of the tax on professional income, and said that all conditions have been created for self-employed citizens to register without problems, not to have problems with interaction with administrators, tax services, reporting,'' Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Anton Siluanov interrupted the first speaker of the meeting — Head of the Federal Tax Service for the Repuplic of Tatarstan Marat Safiullin — after a detailed report. ''The question: how many self-employed people are registered today? For example, throughout Russia (more precisely, in four subjects — Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Kaluga Oblast, Tatarstan — editor's note) — only 2,000 citizens,'' he said and added that the self-employed are not in a hurry to register, despite the promised two-year tax-free regime. The experiment is not working,'' he complained. ''When we promised: please, register, and within two years taxes won't be levied, no live reaction followed. What should be done to increase the number of self-employed registered? How can we make sure that all of them are in the tax system, and the state receives income?'' he asked the chief ''tax collector'' of the republic, making him feel uncomfortable (later he refused to communicate with journalists on this topic).
Make them free from inspections
The tax controller, however, did not get lost and immediately gave a complete recipe for saving measures to involve the self-employed in the tax system. Marat Safiullin said there are three main ways, among which he singled out the exemption from the total control of the supervisory authorities. However, he did not disclose the exact figure, which Siluanov asked.
''We believe that it is necessary to develop a programme of motivation of citizens by providing loans and support, but the main thing is to exempt from inspections. At the first stage, it is important for the supervisory authorities to ensure minimum participation in inspections after our self-employed getting the legal status,'' he outlined the possible reason for the distrust and fear of people to register in the official status of the self-employed taxpayer.
His thought was developed by Rustam Minnikhanov, who agreed that entrepreneurs have not yet started working in the experimental regime, but inspections may start immediately, and they will lose confidence.
In his opinion, if the self-employed is legalized, he will become more responsible and will be interested to work without problems. At the same time, the president assured that without municipalities this problem cannot be solved, they will be responsible for the progress of the experiment. ''Also — about fines,'' he noted another possible reason for mistrust. ''They haven't started working yet, and they were frightened by fines.'' The Tatarstan president said that next week a large meeting of tax services on the administration of the experiment will be devoted to this topic.
First Deputy Prime Minister Anton Siluanov supported Tatarstan's proposal to impose a moratorium on inspections. ''The thing is whether this self-employed will be subject to control by all regulatory authorities. Today he works outside the legal field, and he has no such problem that Rospotrebnadzor may come to him. Therefore, it seems to me that in order to give the opportunity to legalize and maintain the same level of work, status… those inspections that exist today should not apply to this kind of business,'' he agreed. However, he made the reservation that these cases shouldn't ''threaten life and health of people''. ''Here it is necessary to look again further. The most important thing… probably, it is necessary to carry out a moratorium so that the conditions do not change during the transition to the legal field,'' he added.
Let us remind that the new regime for self-employed citizens involves the payment of tax on income from the sale of goods, works, services, property rights to individuals at the rate of 4%, individual entrepreneurs and legal entities — 6%. Those who switched to it will not pay personal income tax in the amount of 13%. When registering, the citizen must specify the region where he or she is engaged in activities, and if it is implemented in several regions, he has the right to choose which of them to specify. However, the place of business cannot be changed more than once a year.
The new tax regime is designed for the citizens whose income does not exceed 200,000 rubles per month (2,4 million rubles per year), who do not have an employer, do not attract employees under employment contracts, have income from the use of property.
Horror stories of tax service: under the guise of self-employed they crush businesses
However, the tax service is not ready to agree to all kinds of concessions. Deputy Head of the Federal Tax Service Andrey Baturkin expressed concern that under the guise of self-employed individual entrepreneurs and small businesses can begin to re-register their businesses. ''It seems to me that it is necessary to wait and six months later to see how successful the implementation of this project turns out, and maybe after that to make some add–ons,'' he stopped the unambiguous course of the discussion. ''Because some businesses and individual entrepreneurs would probably want to leave and minimize their taxes, try to switch to the self-employed regime. Some businesses will try to use this regime and split up their business under the guise of self-employed. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully look at the situation and prevent the fall of the revenue side of the budget,'' he stated his vision of the problem.
According to him, the reluctance to register can be overcome by indirect measures. ''It may be worth motivating not only the self-employed, but also the buyers of the service. If the buyer motivates the service to go through cashless payments through the application, they will require the tutor and the nurse to control the transaction and expand the tax base,'' he suggested. ''The self-employed project is a test of public trust, test of taxpayers' trust in the state. If we bring them out of the shadow, the tax system will get a large sector of the economy, which has fallene out of our field of view,'' he said. But his idea was not discussed.
National projects: Tatarstan signed up to 15 billion rubles
Anton Siluanov put an end to the discussions. He said that the main task for the next 6 years is the implementation of the May Decree on the implementation of national projects. For these purposes, 8 trillion rubles have been allocated until 2024. Tatarstan received 15 billion rubles, or 2,25% of the total amount for 2019, for the implementation of national projects in 2019, Minister of Finance of Tatarstan Radik Gayzatullin said.
For comparison, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast received 59,4 billion rubles for national projects, Bashkortostan — about 40 billion and has not yet agreed on the final amount. Tatarstan Minister of Finance Radik Gayzatullin explained to Realnoe Vremya that the funds are planned only for one year 2019, so it is impossible to compare Tatarstan with other regions.
Anton Siluanov said that for the next 6 years it is set the task of a 25% growth of investment in GDP. ''It is a very difficult task, very difficult,'' he inspired Tatarstan officials, whom, it seemed, this does not scare. And for good reason. Because this problem cannot be solved by budget money alone, explained the minister of finance.