On March 1, 2024, the provisions of Article 67 of the Federal Law of December 12, 2023 No. 565-FZ on employment came into force, providing for the creation of Commissions for combating illegal employment. Now the Federal Tax Service must transfer to the Commission for combating illegal employment information about companies and entrepreneurs whose relations with the self-employed have signs of replacing an employment contract with a civil law agreement. The details of the information to be transferred are set forth in a recent order of the Ministry of Labor.
If such a substitution is detected, the Federal Tax Service may additionally assess personal income tax, social insurance contributions and a fine of 20% of the amount of the arrears.
In this case, the following will be considered as signs of an employment relationship:
- a permanent workplace assigned to the self-employed person on the employer’s territory;
- whenever the self-employed person is required to abide by the employer’s internal labor regulations and work schedule (shift);
- when the contract with the employer includes provisions detailing working conditions;
- to the self-employed person performs a labor function for pay;
- sustained and stable nature of the relationship;
- recognition by the employer of employment rights such as weekly days off and annual leave.
Thus, companies and individual entrepreneurs will be at risk
- if they hire more than 10 self-employed persons, or the self-employed make up more than 10% of the labor force;
- if the average monthly payment for a self-employed person exceeds 20,000 rubles;
- if similar amounts are paid to the self-employed for three or more months.
Violations are fraught not only with financial sanctions: Commission for combating illegal employment will maintain and publish a register of companies that have committed cases of illegal employment.
Legislators propose to go further and prohibit the self-employed from working with legal entities and individual entrepreneurs altogether, leaving them the right to work with individuals; this proposal is being discussed in relevant committees of the Duma.