More than 500 companies of Tatarstan accused of substitution of labour relations with employees

More than a thousand self-employed per week

For the fifth year in Tatarstan, the experiment has been conducted to introduce the new tax regime for the self-employed. The professional income tax is a unique contactless tax regime, fully implemented in the mobile application “My Tax” and has no analogues in the world, including due to the minimum rates.

The figures speak for themselves. For example, in 2020, the total number of payers of professional income tax amounted to 103 thousand taxpayers, in 2021 — 169 thousand, in 2022 — 234 thousand taxpayers.

The amount of professional income tax receipts amounted to: in 2020 — 265,8 million rubles, in 2021 — 960,6 million rubles, by the end of 2022 — 1 billion 497 million rubles, the amount of tax for the first quarter of 2023 — 453 million rubles.

Illegal substitution of labour relations

There was a period when the business began to transfer full-time employees to the self-employed in order to save on taxes. How is this suppressed by the tax authorities?

In accordance with Federal Law No. 422-FZ as of 27 November 2018 “On conducting the experiment to establish the special tax regime 'Tax on professional income', income received from the provision of services to organisations that act as employers or their 'former' employers less than 2 years ago is not recognised as objects of taxation of the self-employment tax.

The tax authorities pay special attention to the transition to the self-employment tax of a group of individuals from one organisation to another as self-employed. So, there is a control panel — an indicator of risks by which the tax authorities can determine the organisations of the risk group. “Risky” taxpayers are organisations and individual entrepreneurs who interact with the self-employed and their interaction according to several criteria may indicate a substitution of labour relations.

About 600 companies passed off full-time employees as self-employed

The letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated 15 April 2022 No.EA-4-15/4674 identified signs of substitution of labour relations:

• fixing the labour function in the contract (the employee personally performs work of a certain kind, and not a one-time task);
• absence of a specific scope of work in the contract (the process of work itself is important for the parties, not the result achieved);
• contract establishes a monthly wage in a certain amount;
• performance of work under an employment contract involves the inclusion of an employee in the production activities of the organisation;
• amount of remuneration does not change during the calendar year;
• employment contract provides for the subordination of the employee to the internal labour regulations, its constituent element is the fulfillment of the employer's orders in the course of work, for the improper fulfillment of which the employee may be subject to disciplinary responsibility;
• contracts are not one-time, but systematic and are concluded for a year or until the end of the calendar year;
• contracts impose financial responsibility on actual contractor of work;
• it follows from the terms of the contract that the employer's control is ensured;
• provision by the employer of the employee with working conditions;
• condition for concluding contracts was the registration of individuals as self-employed, while upon termination of receiving funds from the employer, the self-employed ceased their activities and were removed from the register;
• work is carried out with materials, tools, equipment and on the territory of the organisation.

Tax authorities carry out tax control measures with such organisations. According to the results of 2020, 2021 and 2022, 577 organisations clarified their tax obligations. The amount of additional income tax receipts and insurance premiums amounted to 54,7 million rubles. If organisations fail to provide clarifications, the tax authorities independently add personal income tax and insurance premiums, but already taking into account penalties. For the period 2020-2022, 103 decisions were made with the amount of accrued tax — 8,6 million rubles, penalties — 1,7 million rubles.