In "freeze" frames: each fake self-employed will cost a business 3-5 million
A dispute with the tax service over the self-employed can cost a business losses of 3 million to 5 million rubles. Even one incorrectly registered employee can cost that much — lawyers have already met such amounts. This is stated in a study of the Console platform, which specializes in business interaction with freelance performers. If the Federal Tax Service decides that the company has replaced ordinary employees with self—employed ones in order to save on taxes, it will receive additional personal income tax and insurance premiums for the entire period of work, and fines and penalties on top. For businesses, this is no longer a point risk, but the threat of multimillion-dollar losses and the need to review the entire hiring system. How the authorities are tightening control over the registration of the self—employed - in the Izvestia article.
How much will you have to pay for the self-employed employment scheme
More and more companies are using self-employment as a flexible recruitment tool. However, sometimes such cooperation can lead to claims from the tax service. According to Console estimates (its data was studied by Izvestia), for medium-sized businesses, a dispute with the Federal Tax Service on the self-employed can cost 3-5 million rubles, even if it is only one employee.
If the tax service decides that the company has replaced full—time employees with self-employed ones in order to save on taxes, the company will charge additional personal income tax in the amount of 13% of all payments, insurance premiums of about 30%, penalties for underestimating the tax base - another 20-40% of the amount of claims, as well as penalties for each day of delay.
For example, if a company paid 250,000 rubles a month to a self-employed person for two years, the total amount of payments to him was 6 million. If the authorities determine that there has been a substitution of labor relations, the business may be charged about 780 thousand rubles of personal income tax, about 1.8 million rubles of insurance premiums. And taking into account fines and penalties, the total amount of claims will exceed 3 million rubles, the study says.
Such figures do occur in practice, confirmed by Max Lowman, a business lawyer and expert on legal business strategy. A claim of 2.5–3 million rubles per person is becoming realistic. At the same time, the exact figure depends on the period, rates, contribution benefits, and the amount of evidence, he explained.
The study also notes that the main triggers for FTS claims remain fixed monthly payments, the absence of other clients from the self-employed, working on a schedule and using corporate infrastructure: mail, equipment or workplace.
Companies often underestimate the risk. They only consider potential taxes and do not take into account all the related consequences.: fines, penalties, court costs and management costs, explained Alexander Poshtak, lawyer of the Console platform. However, in the end, one incorrectly issued self-employed person can cost a business as a full-fledged annual employee salary fund. Additional losses arise from the audit itself: distracting from the main activity, the company spends dozens of hours preparing documents, internal audit, responding to the tax service and lawsuits.
In fact, one dispute with the Federal Tax Service can eat up annual profits in a particular business area or call into question the company's investment plans, said Alexander Shkarupa, brand director and founder of the Dynamics event agency.
For a small company, such fines can lead to a complete shutdown of operations, the inability to pay off other employees or creditors. And several such episodes can lead to bankruptcy, says Dmitry Lomakin, managing partner of Formula Consent law firm and senior tax consultant. Izvestia appealed to the Federal Tax Service with questions about what violations companies most often commit when working with the self-employed and how much taxes were added to those who allow them.
Why doesn't business hire staff
In the current economic situation, working with freelancers registered as self-employed is becoming a salvation for a number of companies, said Alexey Begaev, founder of the INSEK group of companies. Businesses also choose such employees because of their flexibility.: This is a quick exit to the executive and less bureaucracy, said Alexander Shkarupa from Dynamics.
— Self-employment has already become an important part of the labor market, so the trend itself is likely to continue. But he will develop "in an adult way".: through compliance standards, internal regulations, and the use of specialized resources that help verify status, build contracts, and avoid obvious risks of retraining," he said.
Companies are interested in saving money. The proportion of truly independent professionals working with multiple clients and a free schedule is likely to grow, says Dmitry Lomakin of Formula Consent. However, those who continue to disguise their employment relationships as self-employment will face increasing risks, he is sure.
It is important to understand that the tax service has long formulated fairly clear criteria for determining the substitution of labor relations. If a business ignores them, the probability of additional charges becomes very high, the founder of the health platform believes. Ruherb.pro entrepreneur Alexey Svistov.
How to avoid fines when hiring the self-employed
Recently, the Federal Tax Service has strengthened control over schemes in which the self-employed actually replace full-time employees, said Alexander Shkarupa. The tax Service speaks directly about the risks of retraining contracts, analyzes the regularity of payments, the share of income from one customer and the relationship with former employers.
— The reason is clear: the government is fighting against illegal optimization of taxes and insurance premiums. For the authorities, this is simultaneously a matter of budget revenues, protecting workers' rights, and equalizing competitive conditions between "white" employers and those who abuse the self—employment regime, he said.
Moreover, interdepartmental commissions of subjects and working groups have also recently begun to monitor illegal employment. They can already collect information about the work of the self-employed and send them to the Federal Tax Service and the Ministry of Labor for inspections, said Yuri Kosolapov, a lawyer in private practice.
In order for a business not to be fined, it is necessary to follow the rules: not to make systematic payments of the same amounts, and also not to hire former employees, said Vladimir Shalaev, a lawyer and partner at Law Group LLC. According to the law, an employer is prohibited from doing this for two years after the dismissal of a self-employed person, said a lawyer, an expert at the National Foundation for Legal Support of Organizations and Citizens Vesta Antskevich.
— To avoid sanctions, it is necessary to build relations as civil law: to conclude a service contract with a clear result of the work, draw up acts, not integrate the contractor into the corporate culture, avoid a fixed schedule and pay for the result, not the working time, - she advised.
In addition, it is necessary to keep records of the number of performers involved in the NPD / GPH, as well as monitor the frequency of contracts and payments, said Yuri Kosolapov.
The massive substitution of self-employment for employment contracts destroys the very idea of a preferential tax regime for freelancers, which in the future may lead to its tightening or cancellation, Dmitry Lomakin admitted. As Alexey Svistov noted, the state is interested in using this tool correctly, and not as a way to avoid taxes and insurance premiums. Self-employment was introduced as part of an experiment and is valid in Russia until December 31, 2028.
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