Vadim Dolinin
In Belarus, the collection of the “tax on parasitism” from citizens has been canceled. The President of the Republic, Alexander Lukashenko, signed Decree No. 1 “On the Promotion of Employment of the Population”. According to the new document, public policy will be aimed at stimulating non-working citizens to legal employment. However, experts doubt that the country's authorities will be able to complete the task of universal employment- objective economic circumstances may interfere with this. RT studied new methods of combating parasitism in Belarus.
January 25 President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko No. 1 "On the promotion of employment." This document became the “heir” of Decree No. 3 “On the Prevention of Social Dependency”, which was popularly called the “Decree on Parasites”.
The new document does not provide for the collection of a tax on financing from able-bodied non-working citizens public spending(nicknamed in society "tax on parasites"). At the same time, those who were previously recognized as payers of this fee are exempted from paying it. The new concept, spelled out in Decree No. 1, provides for universal employment.
“The document is aimed primarily at stepping up the work of the authorities to maximize the assistance to citizens in finding employment, stimulating employment and self-employment of the population,” the press service of the President of Belarus indicates.
The entire burden of complying with the norms of the decree is shifted from tax authorities to local authorities. To do this, the executive committees will create permanent commissions, which will include deputies of all levels, representatives of local authorities and public associations. These commissions will be chaired by the chairmen of the councils of deputies.
Such commissions will have two key tasks. The first is to assist citizens in finding employment, the second is to compile lists of citizens who can, but do not want to work. From January 1, 2019, such persons will pay for state-subsidized services at full cost. The specific list of services is instructed to determine the government. However, it is already known that non-working citizens will lose subsidies for paying utilities, will pay 100% for medicine and education.
Commissions of local executive committees will also decide whether a citizen really does not want to work (leads an asocial lifestyle) or if he finds himself in a difficult life situation, and therefore may not pay for social services at full cost. Also, local authorities will have to work individually with citizens on the issue of their employment.
At the same time, the government of the country must adopt a number of resolutions, which will, among other things, determine the procedure for classifying able-bodied citizens as not employed in the economy, a list of social services provided to these citizens at full cost, and the procedure for calculating fees for these services. Also, it is the government that must figure out how to occupy unemployed citizens in the regions - the Council of Ministers has already been ordered to set forecast indicators in the field of promoting employment.
The decree also singles out "problem areas" - depressed regions of Belarus in which there are no operating industries, and hence jobs outside of budgetary organizations.
Over the course of the year, the government must decide on measures economic development such regions, primarily by supporting local small and medium-sized businesses. In turn, the regional councils of deputies will be able to additionally direct funds local budgets for measures to promote employment of the population in areas with a tense situation in the labor market.
The Decree “On the Prevention of Social Dependency” was signed by Alexander Lukashenko in April 2015. The document provided that citizens who do not work more than 183 calendar days a year must pay 20 basic units to the budget. At that time it was the sum of 360 Belarusian rubles ($180).
At first, the document was not taken seriously in society - until December 2016, when the tax inspectorates sent out about 470 thousand notices about the need to pay the “parasitism tax”.
It turned out that Decree No. 3 actually introduced a tax on the unemployed. This swept across the country in February - March 2017. Only 54 thousand people out of 470 thousand paid the prescribed amount.
On March 9, 2017, the decree was suspended, and at a government meeting, Lukashenka announced that the fee would not be collected from the unemployed for a year. The tax authorities were instructed to return the money to those who had already paid the “parasitism tax”. Simultaneously the president of all the unemployed.
At the same time, a radical revision of the document began, which resulted in the appearance of Decree No. 1.
“The most important thing that remains incomprehensible is how the requirement for the unemployed to pay, for example, medicine fits in with the Constitution, according to which state medicine is free for all citizens, without any distinction? Or education - the child of non-working parents, it turns out, will not be taken to a free school? - noted in an interview with RT Belarusian politician, leader International Center civil initiatives "Our House" Olga Karach.
She clarified that Article 41 of the Belarusian Constitution expressly prohibits the use forced labor, and this norm is contained in many international agreements signed by the republic.
“And here, it turns out, we see forced labor. So far, there is no clarity on how the government will resolve these contradictions,” Karach stressed.
Another important question, according to experts, is how realistic it is to employ everyone. Despite the measures taken by the government, data from the state statistical agency (Belstat) show that in January-September 2017, 4,351,800 people were employed in the Belarusian economy. This is almost 65 thousand (1.4%) less than in the same period last year.
“Employment of the population is primarily the responsibility of a particular region. And who, if not local authorities, sees the situation, owns all the information in order to resolve existing issues? So the employment of people is becoming one of the most important criteria for assessing the work of local authorities, ”said Irina Kostevich, Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Belarus, in an interview with the BelTA news agency.
According to her, local authorities are responsible for the implementation of specific measures to ensure employment of the population, "including the creation of jobs, assistance in finding employment, retraining, provision of temporary work."
Decree No. 3 "On the Prevention of Social Dependency" was not going to be "slowed down". On the contrary, it is being prepared new edition, providing for much broader control over employment and incomes of the population than in the original version. These issues were discussed at a meeting with the President of Belarus on August 3 following the report on demographic situation and promotion of employment.
The authorities are aware of the role human capital and hope to maintain and increase the momentum of population growth. True, so far it leaves much to be desired: as of July 1, 2017, only 9495.5 thousand people lived in the republic - almost 682 thousand less than at the beginning of 1996. Although in 2014-2016. there was some improvement, this year the decline began again. However, the President is confident that Belarus can feed 20 million people, and first it needs to reach 15 million people. " it economic security of our country, the power of our state, and it is always in people”, Alexander Lukashenko said.
In this matter, the state is obliged to act proactively, predict future processes and respond to them in time. “Creating conditions for stimulating the birth rate, providing people with jobs, increasing their well-being are the main government tasks, the tasks of local authorities that need to be addressed. For the solution of these social issues, the demand is the most severe from any official,” the President said.
The second, no less important issue is the promotion of employment. “Everyone who wants to work should have this opportunity. Therefore, the authorities need to provide assistance to everyone who needs it. Actively organize the retraining of citizens, assist them in organizing their business,” the head of state said. The main thesis of the authorities: "everyone who wants to work must have a job, and he has one in our country."
For the implementation of such a concept, Decree No. 3 “On the Prevention of Social Dependency” remains an important tool. Its new edition should be ready by October of the current year.
The wave of protests against the decree did not force the authorities to change their mind. " Society must know that there can be no repeal of the decree, the President said. - I have already motivated this question: we have at least half a million unemployed people. Of these, we can release 200,000: those with many children, the sick, the disabled, people who may want to work, but they are unable to due to life circumstances. But where is 300 thousand? Therefore, Decree No. 3 is 300 thousand of those who should work, but do not work. And we have to make them work. That's the whole ideology».
According to the President, local authorities that directly control the labor market and see every person, and local executive authorities should have all the powers and levers to influence these people to solve this problem. Active participation in the development of a new version of the decree, along with the government, should be taken by the deputies. " The deputy cannot be eliminated from this problem", - said the head of state.
Interestingly, until recently, the development and adoption of decrees and decrees usually did without the participation of parliamentarians. But it turns out that this is also “their bread” - probably in case they have to explain themselves to the population.
A new approach to stimulate employment of the population will be the implementation of the norms of the new edition of Decree No. 3 by local authorities. The government also proposes to implement the principle “if you don't work, you pay for services”. It is assumed that able-bodied citizens who are not employed in the economy will pay for services subsidized by the state budget at a cost that ensures reimbursement of the costs of their provision.
Now all options are being studied, according to which work in this direction could be built. The government is also developing a list of such services. To implement new approaches, the Belarusian Integrated Service and Settlement System is being created. Minister of Labor and Social Protection Irina Kostevich, after a meeting with the head of state, explained that by the end of 2018, all citizens of the country should receive ID cards that allow them to determine whether a person pays taxes and contributions to the Social Security Fund. Able-bodied citizens who are not employed in the economy will pay for those services that are funded by the state. If a person does not work, “then the state will provide services in a completely different way,” the minister said.
Since the President supported such a concept, it remains to finalize the new version of Decree No. 3, as well as to develop an integrated service-billing system as soon as possible, which will cover various areas the life of society. At the same time, the implementation of the norms of the new decree is supposed to be transferred to the competence of local authorities. It is they who, in the near future, will have to deal with the discontent of the population, assess who and for what reason ended up in a “difficult life situation” and whether they can be helped in any way.
Thus, the authorities do not at all intend to "slow down" Decree No. 3, as other citizens hoped. On the contrary, officials are going to draw some lessons from the spring events and collect money from the population that is not working for various reasons more effectively at a qualitatively new level. It must be assumed that the developers and authors of the project are sure in advance that their offspring will not contradict the norms of the Constitution, which guarantee Belarusians the right to health care, including free treatment in public institutions health care (Article 45), accessibility and free of charge general secondary and vocational education (Article 49). However, in many countries there are similar systems, for example, compulsory insurance health in Lithuania. But at the same time, there are a number of other mechanisms, for example, unemployment benefits, on which a person can live. In addition, in the EU, the US and the post-Soviet countries, the state did not declare itself "social" and did not instill paternalistic moods in the population for years. So now we will have to pay not so much for social services, but for getting rid of illusions.
Let's pay attention to one more detail. The meeting was not only about demographics, employment and payment of social services. The topics of declaring income and property and tax evasion were also raised. It was decided to pay more attention to these issues. This should also be done by citizens who, in the excitement of discussing the “tax on parasites”, did not pay attention to paragraph 15 of Decree No. calendar days in tax period, tax authorities have the right to exercise control over the correspondence of citizens' expenses to incomes on the basis of available information on incomes, property and other expenses of citizens. If the tax authorities establish that someone is not living by legal means, i.e. his expenses exceed the income, information about which is at the disposal of the tax authorities, or the fact of receiving income is not confirmed, then a written request will be sent to the citizen to provide explanations about the sources of income. If explanations are not given within the established 30-day period or their content is unconvincing, the citizen will have to pay tax on the excess of expenses over income.
Instruction on the procedure for monitoring the compliance of citizens' expenses with incomes on the basis of information at the disposal of the tax authorities on incomes, property and other expenses of citizens without requiring a declaration of income and property, approved. Decree of the Ministry of Taxes and Taxes of August 31, 2015 No. 22, and a new version of the Law “On Declaration of individuals income and property at the request of the tax authorities” open wide opportunities for identifying people living beyond their means and collecting taxes from them. This could replenish the treasury much more significantly than the notorious "tax on parasites", if, of course, the regulatory authorities seriously begin to use these mechanisms. True, then, most likely, the interests of not the unemployed and housewives, but very important, perhaps even influential persons, will be affected. But they do have money to pay taxes.
Read more on the website of the Economic Newspaper:
On April 2, 2015, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko adopted Decree No. 3 "On the Prevention of Social Dependency" and introduced a special fee, which is popularly known as the "parasitism" tax. If a person does not have a permanent job for six months, he must pay to the treasury this species collection. A citizen who has decided to evade payment obligations may receive forced labor.
The tax on "parasitism" in Belarus was introduced for the following purposes:
After a while, it can be noted that this fee had an impact on the country's economy. Some people admitted to being held, but they were able to pay without any problems. Therefore, one should hardly expect the decree to be canceled in the near future.
The following citizens may not pay the "parasitism" tax:
In addition to the Republic of Belarus, there is no such tax anywhere else. Each country deals with unemployment in its own way. Today, Belarusians are not very happy with this state of affairs.
The tax authority inspects the income and expenses of citizens and finds out who did not make any payments. Further, the citizen is recognized as a social dependent, and he is sent a receipt for payment of the fee.
If you do not pay the tax on "parasitism" in Belarus (2015) on time, you can get a fine. It is charged at the rate of 2-4 basic payments. Or an administrative arrest can be imposed, the term of which can be up to 15 days. For each citizen, the measure of punishment is determined individually. During the arrest, the offender must carry out community service. What kind of work will be carried out is decided by the local authorities. Note that pregnant women are exempted from detention.
Social dependency is subject to a fee, which is paid by November 15 of the following year. If payments are not made within the prescribed period, they will be imposed automatically. For example, the fee for 2016 must be paid by November 15, 2017. Better not be late with the payment. It is also very important to bring documents confirming the possibility of not paying the fee on time.
If you received a letter stating that you are a "parasite", then within 30 calendar days you can provide tax service documents that you are exempt from paying tax. Within 30 days your papers are checked. If a tax office arrange the documents, then you can forget about the payment. And if they didn’t like something, then they will have to figure it out or redo the certificates.
Many argue that social dependency is no longer subject to levy. But, to their great regret, there are no prerequisites for the authorities to decide to cancel the collection. Therefore, you need to know all the nuances of this bill, so that later there will be no trouble. Many people think that if there is no residence permit in Belarus, then you can not pay the fee. In reality, this is not true. Such citizens are also tracked, and if they evade payment, they are put on the wanted list. The government of the country states that ignorance of the law on the collection does not exempt from its payment.
Many articles on the Web have told people that housewives may not pay the fee. However, the president has repeatedly commented on this case. If the family decided that the husband can fully support his wife, then he can pay the fee for her. Only those housewives who are in charge of minor child, or if they are mothers of many children. So do not wonder if the tax on "parasitism" will be abolished. Most likely not.
After the introduction of this tax, according to official data, unemployment in the country has dropped sharply. Many residents of Belarus are afraid of losing their positions. By signing this bill, the president pursued certain goals, which, in his words, fully justified themselves. The law equated all segments of the population, both the poor and the rich. In the first days after the adoption of the decree, many were outraged by the order signed by Lukashenka. And now mass protests and street demonstrations for the abolition of the decree continue.
And for those citizens who do not want to work, there is an alternative - paying a tax. The authorities say that no one is forcing people to work, that this bill does not violate the Constitution of the country, which states that a person has the right to choose. To work or not - the person decides, the state simply asks to finance its treasury.
On April 2, 2015, according to the order of the President of Belarus Lukashenko, a law came into force that it is possible to introduce a basic decree on the prevention of social dependency, or parasitism in other words.
He introduced the right to collect (contract), which amounts to 4.2 million rubles, it can be paid for some time, there is no discount. Everyone who falls into this category must pay it, payment is made to the tax service. You have to pay a large or small contribution, but every parasite is obliged to do this.
First there is a warning, and then a collection, because for a person the main thing is employment. The amount of taxation is provided for by law, in 2018 new laws may be worked out.
The Belarusian who did not work more than 183 days a year will pay. The list of exceptions includes minors, disabled people, pensioners, students or those citizens who left Belarus for more than 183 days. It is not known when the country will be exempted from the tax, as long as it falls into the number of countries in whose territories the payment of the tax on parasitism is distributed.
The Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Belarus was informed that the implementation of the “decree on parasitism” does not violate the Constitution. Accepting the tax on parasitism in Belarus 2018, the latest news says that the adoption of the decree leads to changes in the code. Miklashevich said that unemployment was minimized due to the real opportunity to work. The fee will be 4.2 million rubles, each parasite must pay. You can read more in the news. Also, a video about the tax was filmed with the representative of Gavara, Elena Linkevich.
Everyone is interested in which countries have a tax on parasitism except for Belarus and the USSR? There is no practice of paying the fee in the world, non-working citizens will not pay. For example, in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, the Russian Federation and outside the CIS there is no such law adopted. They are exempt from this fee. Each country, Russia independently organizes people so that they can work. The boss gives a choice, and the person himself decides what kind of work suits him.
While the due collection from non-working residents will not be canceled. Information was received from the relevant ministry that many citizens admitted that they were on someone else's payroll. Over 100 residents have been able to pay the fee since January 1st. Cancellation has not yet been scheduled.
For mothers who look after children under 3 years old, the fee is not paid. Regarding housewives, the fee is also cancelled. You need to present documents to avoid or avoid paying the fee.
News in Brest "Charter 97": the tax on parasitism was canceled in Vitebsk. In the Vitebsk region, 38 Belarusians reported that they did not participate in financing the country's expenses. As a result, the amount was 115.8 million rubles, of which, according to latest news paid 18.4 million rubles. More details can be read in the news about who pays where and who is exempt.
If citizens did not have time to pay or did not fully pay the tax on parasitism, then they introduced a fine of 2 to 4 basic units or administrative arrest. During it, a person without fail involved in the implementation useful work for the public.
The list of objects and the type of work is approved by local legislative bodies. Sometimes a petition filed can slow down the payment term, the detailed text and where to file it can be found on the forum.
Taxation for 2018 has not been canceled, as of January 1, 420 people admitted to parasitism and paid the fee. By the first of October, a base will be created, according to which to calculate all those who did not participate in the financing of government spending and confessed to it. Everything must be paid by November 1st. If any resident ignores the notice, pays 4 base rates or will be administratively arrested for 15 days.
Rural residents are exempt from paying, in their area they introduced such an exemption as paying a tax on parasitism. This category of the population must necessarily engage in agro-ecotourism, a person must be officially registered as a farmer. Belarus protects this category from splat. If a person is not engaged in agro-ecotourism, then he is taxed, unlike other rural residents. They introduce special clarifications and introduce deadlines for paying taxes.
It is quite difficult to bypass the payment for parasitism, even renting an apartment does not exempt you from paying the dependency tax. If a person is a freelancer, this is also not an indicator, it all depends on how much was paid to the state. The base payment may not be made if the person joins the military. The next method of bypassing the payment is to buy a house in the village and register it as an agricultural estate, you can also officially become a farmer. In addition, you can become a writer and go abroad for 6 months. In such cases the state budget others will raise.
On Thursday evening, the presidential press service reported that Alexander Lukashenko. Its essence, according to the Minister of Labor Irina Kostevich, is to promote the employment of citizens. In fact, the decree abolishes the well-known "tax on parasitism." But the sad news is that they still have to pay. Will this amount be less than the tax amount?
There was Decree No. 3 “On the Prevention of Social Dependency”. According to this decree, persons who worked less than 183 days a year had to pay a kind of "parasitism tax", or, as officials called it, "a fee for financing government spending." It was 20 base units (at that time 360 rubles). The Ministry of Taxes and Duties has calculated that there are 440,000 "parasites" in the country. True, only 10% of all fees were paid. The rest stubbornly resisted, rallied, sued and were indignant.
In March last year, the president announced that the decree had been postponed for a year, the “parasites” were allowed not to pay the tax yet, but the tax itself was not canceled. The President instructed to develop amendments to the decree. A special commission was created, the Ministry of Labor made amendments - the list of "parasites" was reduced. The President asked to transfer "powers and levers of influence" to local authorities to resolve the situation. The discussion went on until the fall of last year, and in October the updated Decree No. 3 was already presented to the president. The text of the updated document was not shown to the public. The main ideas that came from the officials were: there will be no abolition of the collection, it is necessary to force those who can, but do not want to work, "parasites" will have to pay 100% of "those costs that are currently being remunerated by the state." Also at that time it became known that the decree would change its name and become the Decree "For the Promotion of Employment".
Last December, Deputy Prime Minister Vasily Zharko announced that the updated Decree No. 3 would come into force on January 1, 2019. And on January 25, it became known that the President had already signed Decree No. 1 with the title "On the Promotion of Employment."
As Minister of Labor Irina Kostevich explained to BelTA, the decree provides that able-bodied Belarusians who are not employed in the economy will pay for services at prices that ensure full refund economically justified costs for their provision. The rule comes into force on January 1 next year.
- Thus, a person has almost a year to determine his status and, if desired, change it,- added the minister.
In fact, new decree exempts "parasites" from paying fees to finance government spending. It is not known whether the old norm that "parasites" are recognized as those who worked less than 183 days a year remains. At least at the moment, the presidential press service has not reported that it has been cancelled.
The list of services and the procedure for calculating the government must determine before April 1 this year. It is not yet clear whether the parasites will pay for the costs of the police, officials, military and other expenses that taxpayers' money goes to.
According to the Minister of Labor, some databases of able-bodied citizens of working age who are not employed in the economy will be formed. The government will form them. They must determine the list of categories of citizens within a month.
- In the near future, the government will determine the procedure for the formation and maintenance of the base. It is assumed that the formation mechanism will be two-level. At the first stage, the main database will be formed at the republican level based on the republican information resources. The second stage, the local level, is the adjustment of the main base by local authorities, taking into account the information resources and other information they have.
- Information from the database will be used in the field primarily to assist non-working citizens in finding employment. Based on the results of this work, local authorities will decide on the provision of services to a particular person with reimbursement of costs, - said Kostevich.
Recall that last year the Ministry of Labor proposed introducing ID-cards for everyone in order to accurately track whether a person is working or not.
It all depends on what services the government will include in the list and according to what criteria it will count. For comparison, only the cost of medicine in Minsk for 2018 is planned at the rate of 400 rubles per person. If the government decides to build on this amount, then only the payment of this one item will be comparable to the "tax on parasitism" (20 basic ones at the moment is 490 rubles). If payment for 100% of utilities and travel to public transport, then the amount will be much larger.
While there is no information on how the payment for services for "parasites" will be calculated, this question remains open.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population says that the decree is intended to promote employment of the population.
- First of all, I want to note that in the republic there is a certain category of able-bodied citizens who do not work and are not interested in finding a job. Perhaps some of them are citizens engaged in shadow business. Therefore, it is necessary to create conditions under which the citizen himself will be interested in employment,- explains the Minister of Labor. - In addition to general economic measures, it is necessary to focus efforts on providing assistance in finding employment for each person.
Therefore, the decree entrusts local authorities with the responsibility to implement specific measures to ensure employment of the population, including the creation of jobs, assistance in finding employment, retraining, and the provision of temporary work. Evaluation of their activities at all levels will be carried out quarterly.
At the same time, the decree determined that pursuing an effective policy to promote employment of the population, stimulating employment and self-employment, supporting entrepreneurial initiatives, and ensuring the legalization of labor activity will become one of the main indicators of the effectiveness of the work of heads of local executive and administrative bodies.
The decree provides for the creation of commissions under local authorities, which will include deputies of all levels, specialists, representatives of housing and communal services, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and may also include representatives of public associations. These commissions are given primary responsibility for field work. They will be obliged to provide an individual approach to everyone who asked for help or got into a difficult situation. Practice has shown that we need to work more actively, more persistently offer our employment services, and show initiative.
