On March 9, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko postponed the payment of the “parasitism tax” for a year.
He promised that the decree on the tax, which is levied on those who officially worked less than 6 months a year, will be adjusted, but not canceled, Belta reports.
“During March, if necessary, we need to correct this decree. But the decree will not be cancelled. First of all, tell the officials that it will be implemented with the adjustments that I mentioned,” the Belarusian leader said.
He instructed by April 1 to determine the lists of those who must make payments on the basis of the decree on "parasitism."
“In 2016, a certain number (thousands of people) made payments without contesting. Today I am lifting the requirement that everyone we single out in the first quarter pay this money. For 2016, we will not collect this money from those who have to pay. And those who paid, those in 2017 will not pay. If they work in 2017, we must return this money at their request,” Lukashenka explained.
Thus, Lukashenka reacted to numerous protests against the tax, which affected about 8% of all able-bodied citizens of the country.
Belarusian economist Vladimir Kovalkin believes that the introduction of the tax was a big mistake, which was also psychologically badly perceived by people, writes Meduza.
“The fact that the decree is one big, continuous mistake was clear to everyone already at the stage of its inventing. Even then, independent economists and experts analyzed it and called the document violating several articles of the Constitution at once, which, for example, says that a person has the right to work, but there is not a word that he is obliged to work ... As for the economic part of this decree : trying to tax unemployed people is at least strange, if only because they simply do not have income from which they could pay this tax, ”said Kovalkin.
The authorities wanted to strike at the black and gray markets, at those people who seem to be engaged in entrepreneurial activity, but they are not formalized in any way and do not pay taxes, but hit the unprotected segments of the population, for example, mothers sitting at home with children.
“Besides, the wording itself, prescribed in the decree, offends people greatly. It's one thing when you evade taxes - that's all right, but here, it turns out, you lived, worked, paid taxes, and then suddenly found yourself without a job - and suddenly became a parasite. And no one cares that you worked for 10-15 years and honestly paid high taxes. They will impose an additional fine on you, and even call you a bad word, ”concluded the economist.
In 2015, the President of Belarus Alexander. In accordance with the decree, citizens of Belarus who do not work for six months must pay a tax once a year, the amount of which is 20 basic units (one base unit is a little more than $10).
This law led to
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The topic of imposing a tax on parasitism has been discussed in Russia for a long time. The initiative of officials did not find support among the population, and the bill is in the process of being developed. The question of whether a tax for parasitism will be introduced in Russia in 2018 remains open, since neither the amount of payments nor the categories of citizens who will fall under the law have been fully worked out.
Periodically, the Government considers the idea of imposing a tax on parasites. This idea began to develop especially actively after Decree No. 3 was adopted in neighboring Belarus in 2015. The essence of the bill being worked out in Russia is that non-working, but able-bodied citizens pay tax in the prescribed amount.
Deputy Prime Minister O. Golodets in 2016 became one of the initiators of the introduction of the law. She stated that most of the officially non-working population works and has an income, but does not pay taxes, while using social services, including medicine. According to her, the new bill will increase budget revenues and compensate for the state's expenses for servicing the non-working part of the population. According to statistics, such expenses amount to about 40-45 billion rubles.
Dmitry Medvedev asked not to use the phrase "tax for parasitism", since the bill is aimed at involving the non-working part of the population in the tax payment system, and not the fight against parasites. The main goal of the innovations is that everyone who uses them should pay for social services.
Despite the fact that officials expect to replenish the budget in this way, some of the experts suggest that the state will incur additional costs. The fact is that they plan to exempt people who are registered with employment centers from the tax. In order to avoid punishment for the lack of official employment, the unemployed will go to the stock exchanges en masse. As a result, the state will have to pay social benefits to them.
In neighboring Belarus, the introduction of a tax on parasitism did not bring the desired result. Instead of paying the tax, people began to organize rallies and protests, since the so-called "letters of happiness" came to many without legal grounds. To avoid such blunders, the Government decided to carefully consider all the details. The goal of the law is to raise funds from informal workers, but many people suspect that those who are trying to somehow survive in conditions of unemployment and pitifully low wages will definitely suffer from it.
Due to the fact that many points have not yet been thought out, it is unlikely that the law on parasitism in Russia will be adopted in 2018. Experts say that it takes at least 2-3 years to work out all the details. In addition, it is necessary to collect statistical data on the number of unemployed and those who work informally in order to realistically assess the current situation.
At the initial stage of the development of the project, it was planned to establish a tax of 20 thousand. According to the Minister of Labor and Social Policy, this is how much a non-working person can spend using medicine and other services provided by the state. Although the figures have not been confirmed by research and calculations, in other words, they are simply taken from the ceiling. According to many people, including experts, the size is clearly oversized.
Later, the figure of 8 thousand rubles began to sound, but even $ 150 a year for some people can be an unbearable amount. Experts in this area propose to launch the law in a pilot mode and set the tax amount at a low mark - 500 rubles, but whether officials will listen to them is still unknown.
Since officials want to replenish the budget at the expense of those who are capable, but do not work. Preferential categories of people will be exempted from the tax. These will include:
The tax will not affect people who are officially employed and pay taxes, including private entrepreneurs. It is also assumed that the lists of those who will be obliged to pay the tax will not include people who are officially looking for work, that is, those who are registered with the employment center. The problem will not affect the same people in countryside who receive income from the sale of livestock, vegetable or horticulture products subject to the payment of taxes. Citizens who receive income from property rentals or bank dividends will also be able to avoid additional costs if they pay taxes to the Pension Fund on time.
There are several ways to avoid tax:
Experts say that the law may not bring the desired results, and new expenses will appear instead of replenishing the budget. Whether the law will be adopted and whether it will be able to work effectively, only time will tell, but already now most people are against its introduction. In addition, many people agree to pay taxes, but they are often stopped by the bureaucracy that reigns in tax office and other state structures.
Image copyright Alexei Druzhinin/TASS Image caption Judging by Lukashenka's decree, what other punishments and restrictions will be received by the officially unemployed, the government will have to determine
Parasites in Belarus are exempted from the previously obligatory tax - the "parasitism tax", which amounted to more than 250 dollars a year for those who did not officially work for six months, but are obliged to fully reimburse the cost of services subsidized by the state.
The list of these services, according to Lukashenka's first decree this year, is to be determined by the government by April 1.
From the text, published on the evening of January 25, and effective from the moment the decree was published, it is clear that the president obliges the government to introduce restrictions on the provision of unemployed Belarusian economy citizens of "non-cash subsidies for payment of housing and communal services and state support in the construction (reconstruction) or acquisition of residential premises.
Translated from bureaucratic language, this means that Belarusian citizens who have not been officially employed for six months - and, as indicated in the decree, foreigners and stateless persons who have received a residence permit or a permit to permanent residence in the Republic of Belarus - will pay in full (determined by the government) utilities and are unlikely to receive a loan for the purchase (repair) of an apartment.
Judging by Lukashenka's decree, what other punishments and restrictions will be received by the officially unemployed will be determined by the government.
Experts in Minsk believe that some kind of "full" payments may arise in state clinics and hospitals, schools and other state institutions.
The decree now signed, amending the provisions of the law "On the Prevention of Social Dependency" adopted two years ago, provides for the creation of multi-level commissions that are to determine the "employed" status of citizens and decide what to do with those who find themselves in a "difficult life situation."
Commissions at the local level undertake to provide the unemployed with advisory and legal assistance, teach the basics of entrepreneurship and financially support those who want to become entrepreneurs.
The commissions are obliged to send the unemployed, leading an asocial lifestyle, to LTP - medical and labor dispensaries, revived in Belarus following the example of the Soviet ones.
The authorities are also required to identify informal workers and tax evaders in order to hold them accountable.
Judging by the text of the decree, the central and local authorities during the current 2018 should form bases of violators of labor and tax legislation so that from January 1, 2019, these people begin to bear financial responsibility for the absence of official work and non-payment of taxes.
"Tax on parasitism", now canceled by Lukashenka, according to the Belarusian media and experts, in previous years paid only 10% of those to whom the authorities sent "letters of happiness" - official demands to pay a fee for reimbursement of government spending.
During 2016-2017, numerous protests against the "parasitism tax" took place in Belarus. It is noteworthy that the protests engulfed not so much the capital as the Belarusian regions, where the problem of employment and earnings is still acute.
Many actions ended with forceful detentions of protesters. Among those arrested and convicted administrative fines and, contrary to the Belarusian tradition, there were fewer arrests of "full-time" oppositionists - activists of opposition parties and movements - than residents of the provinces and journalists of local media.
Anatoly Lebedko, the leader of the United Civil Party, which is in opposition to the authorities, and who took part in the regional "Non-parasite Marches" and was detained by the security forces, does not predict "non-parasite" protests in the near future.
"The tax has been abolished. The tax had access to a huge number of people - the tax authorities called at the door of many and ordered them to pay. Mass protests were a reflection on this. practical implementation decree. And this will give rise to more than one information occasion. If people are ordered to pay for medical services, education - what can this result in? Will the person not receive the necessary medical care?" Lebedko argues.
And he comes to the conclusion: “After some time, when the decree suddenly begins to be implemented in this order, people will find that the model of the social state that Lukashenka has been building and promoting for more than 20 years is collapsing. It was declared and repeated many times that all services are available - and then it turns out that the child is not taken to school, because the parents do not have a job! I cannot put an end to this place. But I think that with the practical implementation of this decree, the authorities may be big problems Maybe all this will be a bone that will get stuck in the throat of power.
183 or more days a year, regardless of the level of income and the amount of tax paid on it
(unless expressly stated otherwise) :
1. You work under an employment contract (contract) or on the terms of membership in a production cooperative or a peasant (farm) enterprise;
2. You carry out activities as an individual entrepreneur subject to the payment of taxes on such activities;
3. You perform work under civil law contracts for work, provision of services or creation of facilities intellectual property, With the total amount remuneration of at least 70 basic units based on the size of the BV as of January 1 (minimum 12,600,000 rubles for 2015);
4. You carry out the activities specified in paragraph 1 of Article 295 of the Tax Code of the Republic of Belarus ( single tax without registering an individual entrepreneur) subject to the payment of a single tax for such activities for this period;
5. You were a serviceman, an employee of a paramilitary organization with special ranks, a reservist during classes and training camps, and you were liable for military service during military training and special training camps;
6. You are a lawyer or a notary;
7. This year you carry out activities for the provision of services in the field of agro-ecotourism, subject to the payment of a fee for the implementation of this activity no later than December 28 of the last year. The fact and period of implementation of activities for the provision of services in the field of agroecotourism must be confirmed by the local executive committee;
8. Carry out handicraft activities this year, if the fee for the implementation of such activities was paid before December 28 of the previous year;
9. Carry out creative activities as a creative worker, whose status is confirmed by the creative union of which you are a member, or a professional certificate issued in accordance with the law;
10. If you are a clergyman, a clergyman of a religious organization, a participant (member) of a monastery, a monastic community;
11. If you are registered in a rural settlement or an urban-type settlement, and have been running a personal subsidiary plot. A land plot for housekeeping must be allocated to you or your spouse, or parents (including adoptive parents, adopters), or children (including adopted children), or parents of a spouse (wife), subject to cohabitation and housekeeping . The fact and period of conducting personal subsidiary plots on such a site are confirmed by the rural (settlement) executive and administrative body;
12. You are registered as unemployed or have been vocational training, retraining and advanced training in the direction of the body for labor, employment and social protection;
13. You are disabled (s), in the presence of a certificate of incapacity for work (certificate of temporary incapacity for work) or its (her) duplicate;
14. If you are a mother (stepmother), father (stepfather), adoptive parent (adoptive child), guardian (custodian), raising a child under the age of 7, a disabled child under the age of 18, three or more minor children. Children are not taken into account, in respect of which parents ( single parent) are deprived of parental rights, taken away from the family, brought up in foster families, family-type orphanages, located in children's boarding institutions, educational institutions with a round-the-clock regime of stay;
15. Student (student) of the day department of a vocational school, technical school,
college, other institution of vocational or secondary specialized education, institute, university, academy, other institution of higher or special education;
16. You are in a period of rest provided as a graduate (ce) of an educational institution, to whom (th) a place of work was provided by distribution or assignment to work, lasting 31 calendar days, and a graduate (ce) sent to work as teachers, - 45 calendar days;
17. You are a recipient of a pension, including from other states, benefits from the republican budget, the Social Protection Fund of the Republic of Belarus, including benefits for temporary disability (with the exception of benefits of a one-time nature);
18. Are a citizen entitled to receive a disability or survivor's pension due to an accident at work or an occupational disease and receive monthly insurance payments in accordance with the legislation from Belgosstrakh;
19. Attracted to work during the term of serving a sentence in the form of arrest, restriction of freedom with direction to an open correctional institution, imprisonment, life imprisonment, are in a medical and labor dispensary.
The periods indicated in this column are summed up if they do not match. If there is a match, one of the periods is taken.
The government has determined who will be subject to the updated parasitism document — — and what services they will pay at full rate. The corresponding decision is enshrined in government decree dated March 31, 2018 No. 239.
Thus, those not employed in the economy at the full rate pay for housing and communal services. In addition, commissions will be created in the regions that will make decisions on those who fell under the decree on promoting employment.
The picture is illustrative. Photo: Alexander Chuguev, TUT.BY
Those employed in the economy will include:
Those who bring up children under 7 years of age, a disabled child under the age of 18, three or more minor children are also among those employed in the economy.
Received full-time education, as well as those receiving education at home will also be considered employed in the economy. The exception is those who take training courses (lectures, thematic seminars, workshops, trainings, officer courses) and educational programs improving the capabilities and abilities of the individual.
Employed in the economy are also those who who is engaged in the production of crop production(excluding floriculture products, ornamental plants, their seeds and seedlings), animal husbandry(except for the cities of Brest, Vitebsk, Gomel, Grodno, Minsk, Mogilev) land plot, provided for running a personal subsidiary plot, running a peasant (farm) economy, building and maintaining a residential building, including the construction and (or) servicing of a single-family, blockaded residential building, servicing a registered organization for state registration apartments in a blocked residential building.
Student athletes specialized educational and sports institutions, children's and youth sports schools (specialized children's and youth schools of the Olympic reserve), included in the structure of clubs by type (s) of sports in the form
isolated structural divisions also referred to as employed in the economy.
At the same time, citizens whose employment is difficult or impossible for objective reasons are excluded from the number of able-bodied citizens not employed in the economy. So, the able-bodied citizens who are not employed in the economy will not include:
In addition, they will not be classified as unemployed in the economy of those who receives a disability or survivor's pension due to an accident at work or occupational disease receiving monthly
insurance payments against accidents at work and professional
diseases.
Those, who receives pensions, including those from other states, social security benefits(except for one-offs), as well as temporary disability benefits are also not subject to the Decree. As well as those to whom "the measures provided for by legislative acts were applied to ensure security, which did not allow them to engage in various types of activities."
The validity of the document for 6 months also does not apply to citizens of Belarus who arrived in our country for permanent residence, as well as to foreigners or stateless persons who have received a permanent residence permit in Belarus and are registered at the place of residence. They have "immunity" for half a year, starting from the month in which they were registered in our country.
Interestingly, those dismissed or resigned, who, according to the decision of the Council of Ministers, during the quarter following the quarter in which they were left without work, are not subject to the decree. At the same time, in order not to pay for housing and communal services at economically justified rates, they need to contact the commission that works with parasites and provide the relevant documents. That is, they are not automatically exempted from payment at the full rates of "communal", but upon application.
The same rule applies to employees laid off due to a reduction in the number or staff, as well as wives and husbands of military personnel and young professionals working abroad. Moreover, those who were under medical supervision during pregnancy and childbirth should apply to the commission on parasites in order not to pay economically justified tariffs for housing and communal services.
The Ministry of Taxes and Duties was instructed to ensure the transfer to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection property rights to software related to the collection and transmission of information from government agencies and other organizations on the participation of citizens in financing public spending.
The owner of the database of able-bodied citizens not employed in the economy is the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, and the database operator, which ensures the creation and maintenance of the database during its formation and maintenance, is the Center for Information Technologies of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Belarus.
The formation and maintenance of data is carried out by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection in order to generate information about able-bodied citizens not employed in the economy, as well as keeping records of able-bodied citizens not employed in the economy.
The database includes the following mandatory information about a citizen: identification number; surname, first name, patronymic (if any) in Russian; Date of Birth; floor; citizenship; data on registration at the place of residence (place of stay); type, series and number of the identity document.
The Ministry of Communications and Informatization was instructed to provide funding for activities to create and automate the process of creating a database as part of the implementation of activity 12 of subprogram 2 State program development digital economy and Information Society for 2016-2020, approved by the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated March 23, 2016 No. 235.
State bodies, other organizations that submit lists of identification numbers of citizens for the formation of a database, were instructed together with RUE " national center electronic services» ensure: by June 1, 2018, organizational and technical measures for integration into the nationwide automated information system of state information systems and resources considering separate categories citizens, in order to automate the process of forming a database in electronic form; transfer no later than September 1, 2018 and further within the established time limits of information for the formation of the database.
The Ministry of Labor together with the National Center for Economics until November 30, 2018 must provide access to the database for local executive and administrative bodies through a nationwide automated information system.
Until November 30, 2018, local executive and administrative bodies were instructed to carry out the necessary organizational and technical measures to gain access to the database through a nationwide automated information system.
The main points of the adopted resolution come into force after the official publication of the document.
Recall that on January 25, Alyaksandr Lukashenka decree No. 1, which provides for measures to promote employment of the population. AT new decree the norms on the collection of fees from able-bodied non-working citizens to finance public expenditures were not included. At the same time, persons previously recognized as payers of this fee are exempted from paying it.
However, the document did not state which of the Belarusians would be covered by the document, as well as the list of services for the consumption of which those who fell under the decree would pay at an economically justified tariff. This was instructed to determine the government by April 1.
It was predicted that Belarusians, who, under the action of Decree No. 1, would pay for housing and communal services at an economically justified tariff. At the same time, the reimbursement of expenses for medical care there is no question, it turned out to be Novopolotsk, and from the districts - Loevsky.
In the Ministry of Labor, talking about Decree No. 1, that the government will annually identify territories with a tense situation in the labor market. Additional funds from the state budget will be allocated to the employment program in such regions.
According to the forecasts of the Ministry of Labor, about 250 thousand Belarusians are under the effect of Decree No. 1.
The actual unemployment rate in Belarus over the past 4 years by 0.5 percentage points: from 5.1% in 2014 to 5.6%. In Belarus last year there were 293.4 thousand unemployed, classified in accordance with the criteria of the International Labor Organization. This is 8.4 thousand people less than in 2016.
At the same time, the number of Belarusians who go abroad to work has noticeably increased. If in 2014 62.2 thousand people worked outside the country, then in the past - 83 thousand (of which 83.9% worked in Russia). For comparison: in 2015 there were 39.4 thousand working abroad, and in 2016 - 59.5 thousand.
