On April 2, 2015, Decree No. 3 “On the Prevention of Social Dependency” was signed. So there was a well-known far beyond the borders of Belarus "Tax on parasitism", "Tax on the unemployed".
And on January 27, 2018, Decree No. 1 “On the Promotion of Employment of the Population”, also signed by the President and actually canceling the “Tax on parasitism”, came into force.
But the basic concepts of the "Tax on the Unemployed" and the definition of "Social Dependency" did not become a thing of the past with the signing of the new Decree, but acquired other forms and gave rise to far-reaching consequences.
Therefore, it makes sense to recall Decree No. 3, and the course of its implementation, and the prerequisites of Decree No. 1, and the current state of affairs.
The signing of Decree No. 3 was preceded by a tense period of waiting, discussion of the validity and legality of such a document, assumptions possible consequences its acceptance. There was a demand from the President not to be afraid to repeat the developments of the Soviet period, to force those who evade socially useful labor, but enjoy the benefits of a socially oriented state, to work. There were statements from the Ministry of Taxes and Duties, the Ministry of the Interior and other officials.
There were serious objections in response:
However, despite objections, the Decree was adopted.
The essence of the Unemployment Tax can be summarized as follows:
Citizens of Belarus not participating in the financing of the budget 183 calendar days, i.е. those who did not pay taxes to the budget became obliged to pay a tax in the amount of 20 .
Decree adopted: "In order to prevent social dependency."
However, unlike in the Soviet era, it was not the unwillingness to work itself that became unacceptable, but the refusal to participate in the financing of government spending. Those. a citizen who pays taxes is still not obliged to work (but he is obliged to declare the source of income, as defined in tax legislation).
To identify persons not participating in the financing of government spending, control was stepped up.
The “parasitism tax” did not become an option for legalizing income, i.e. and after its voluntary payment, the tax authorities have the right and obligation to take actions to identify undeclared income and impose appropriate penalties. This became another reason for avoiding any contact with the tax authorities.
The Decree gave a list of categories of citizens from whom the tax would not be levied:
Citizens who, according to the Decree, were recognized as participating in financing, were not subject to the tax public spending, namely:
Then the list was corrected and explained, for example, not only those who are engaged in subsidiary farming in rural areas, but also those who lead such farming in cities, with the exception of regional centers, were excluded from the number of “parasites”. No more parasites officially working and full-time students abroad, as well as the spouses of civil servants abroad.
The attitude towards “dependents” remained unchanged. Only the form of collecting money from such citizens has changed; instead of a tax, they are denied subsidies for certain services.
With the signing of Decree No. 1, the situation looks like this:
It would be more correct to consider the current attitude of the authorities towards “social dependents” as some kind of transitional state. Probably, the economic pressure on them will grow, but this will happen through the requirement to pay the state for all social benefits.
However, the entire country is gradually moving away from cross-subsidization and are approaching 100% reimbursement of many services. What will happen to the "parasites" is still unknown.
If you notice a mistake in the text, please highlight it and press Ctrl+Enter
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 the tax office is satisfied with 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 position. 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.
Protest actions of "parasites" swept through many Belarusian cities. They were held in Brest, Bobruisk and Baranovichi. In Vitebsk, the largest "people's gathering" in the history of the city was organized. Minsk residents also expressed their dissatisfaction: the action in the capital became the most massive since the dramatic events of 2010, when citizens opposed the results of the presidential elections.
Now the Belarusian "parasites" are preparing for the "hot March" - the schedule of events throughout the country is scheduled by day; the culmination should be Freedom Day on March 25th.
“With us, ordinary citizens, no one is considered. Here is the fee for "parasitism" - people lose workplace and they are taxed. How does that work, huh? Should people pay for not having a job?” - the participants of mass actions are indignant. However, it is possible that the rallies will no longer be needed: everything indicates that the authorities are ready to suspend the ill-fated Decree No. 3.
Ever since the end of last year tax inspections began to literally send out “letters of happiness” in batches, the demand of the state to pay a “tax on parasitism” became, perhaps, the main topic of conversation among Belarusians. But at the very beginning, back in April 2015, when Alexander Lukashenko signed Decree No. 3 “On the Prevention of Social Dependency,” many people assessed the “decree on parasites” with irony. So far, we haven't received any tax notices.
From November to January, the Belarusian tax authorities sent out more than 470,000 notifications to recipients about the need to pay a "fee to finance state expenses." That is, about every 22nd Belarusian received such a “letter of happiness”. But if we take into account in the general statistics only able-bodied citizens who work officially, excluding small children, schoolchildren, students and pensioners, it turns out that every tenth able-bodied citizen received a “letter of happiness”. If we take into account the absent - those who went to work in Russia, Poland and other neighboring states, then in general every eighth. Thus, the "tax on parasites" instantly became a social phenomenon.
According to Decree No. 3 "On the Prevention of Social Dependency", if a citizen of Belarus does not work 183 days a year and is not registered as unemployed, then he must pay a special fee - 360 Belarusian rubles($185). February 20, 2017 is the deadline for paying the fee.
At the same time, many Belarusians, even when they are unemployed, are not registered as unemployed. The fact is that the unemployment benefit in the country is about $ 20, you can receive it only for six months and at the same time you need to go to public works. In addition, there is nothing to do, especially in the provinces, where there are many half-dead enterprises. Their leaders do not fire anyone (it is forbidden so as not to spoil the statistics), and they practically do not pay salaries. People are trapped.
It came as a complete surprise to the authorities that the usually obedient Belarusians simply refused to pay the tax. Despite possible penalties, including imprisonment, only 10% of those who received the notices contributed money. The rest began a campaign of civil disobedience.
The authorities also overlooked something else: in 2017, citizens, it turns out, are required to pay a fee for two previous tax period- for 2015 (until February 20, amount - 360 rubles) and for 2016 (until November 15, amount - 420 rubles). In total it is $400. But average monthly salary in Belarus falls short of this indicator. And in the provinces, besides, salaries are much lower than in the capital, while getting a job is many times more difficult. This is precisely what explains the resonance in society, which was caused by notifications from the tax inspectorate. The received notifications in the complete absence of money from people caused a number of suicides. The media reported on several cases, while the circumstances for two were established for certain: in Osipovichi and Rogachev.
In response to "letters of happiness" one of the Belarusians poisons the existence of employees tax authorities and officials of the executive committees, bombarding them with complaints and making scandals.
But the largest group is made up of citizens who simply do not have money, and these people took to the protests. Even the recent increase in the retirement age has not provoked such a conflict.
“The problem of the so-called parasites has several aspects. The first is moral. Thousands of people who cannot work due to difficult life situations, tens of thousands of those who do not work due to bad leadership (every year the country loses 70,000 jobs), economist Lev Margolin, deputy chairman of the United Civil Party, notes on the Europe Insight website. . The second aspect is legal. The constitution provides for a right to work, not a duty. And for many, the words "welfare state" have long lost all meaning. They teach children for their money, but for money they rent medical tests and do different procedures. In fact, the only ones they don’t “finance” are officials and security forces who beat them on occasion. Well, the third aspect is economic. It is unlikely that the money that can be collected from the "parasites" (according to the most optimistic estimates, this is $30-35 million) will cover the costs associated with obtaining these funds. This is the remuneration of employees of tax and other public services: militia, courts, penitentiary services; tons of paper and ink, etc. etc. A classic case when the game is not worth the candle. And that's not counting the cost of losing reputation."
In December 2016, Lukashenko officially acknowledged the incorrect implementation of the tax measure, and in January he signed Decree No. 1, by which he made changes to his original “decree on parasites”. However, instead of eliminating excesses, the new document had the opposite effect: in particular, mothers who raise young children were obliged to pay the tax. After that, people took to the streets.
However, it is unlikely that the Belarusian authorities were seriously afraid of the protests. At one time, Lukashenka also experienced much larger-scale performances.
However, practice has shown that the "parasitism tax" was not profitable, but, on the contrary, unprofitable for the treasury. Even if we simply add up all the office expenses, the costs of creating special databases, the working hours of numerous officials and the tax inspectorates that are completely paralyzed today, it turns out that the implementation of the “parasite decree” took much more money than was received as a result of its results. . Experts interviewed by RT agree: the authorities should not have started anything at all.
When developing Decree No. 3, the state expected to receive additional funds to the budget, assuming that people who are not employed in the "official" economy and are not officially registered as unemployed work in the "shadow" and do not pay taxes. But in practice, it turned out that citizens simply sit idle or work at enterprises with employment 1-2 days a week - there are a lot of such people in Belarus.
As a result, the case of each non-payer has to be considered individually, and there are half a million of them. Now, the health authorities should also collect information whether the citizen suspected of “parasitism” suffered from serious diseases that could prevent him from working.
It turned out to be a kind of chain reaction - mass proceedings with "parasites" paralyze the work of ever new state structures. And this is happening against the backdrop of an incredible increase in social tensions.
How to get everything back
“I am sure that at the very top they already perfectly understood how much they missed the pursuit of the “parasites”. And now the main concern of the authorities is to get out of this situation, saving face, - Belarusian economist Leonid Zlotnikov told RT. “I really don't understand anything else. Didn't anyone in the presidential administration foresee when preparing this decree that it would cost more than the amount of money received? It turns out that there, at the very top, they decided that the Belarusians would simply and meekly pay the next fee, and such a large one by Belarusian standards? In this case, the leadership of the country big problems not with economics, but with sociology.
It will not work to shift the blame to officials on the principle of “the king is good - the boyars are bad,” Zlotnikov believes.
“I think that the issue of “pacification” of society will be entrusted to tax inspectorates and executive committees, which will be incredibly loyal to citizens,” says Leonid Zlotnikov. - That is, they will accept absolutely any explanation from people why they didn’t work, why they don’t have money, what their life situation is, and so on. Just to bring down the current wave of indignation. And closer to autumn, the decree will be frozen under a plausible pretext. That is, they will not cancel it, but stop using it and pretend that there was nothing special.”
Which provides for measures to promote employment of the population. The document is aimed primarily at intensifying the work of the authorities to maximize the assistance to citizens in finding employment, stimulating employment and self-employment of the population. This was reported by the press service of the President.
To this end, the Decree entrusts the Government with the tasks of establishing forecast indicators in the field of promoting employment of the population and a list of territories with a tense situation in the labor market, monitoring, assessing the quality and availability of services in the field of promoting employment of the population.
In turn, local authorities will provide individual work with citizens on the ground when carrying out work on their employment and resocialization of persons leading an asocial lifestyle. In addition, the regional, Minsk City Councils of Deputies will be able to additionally allocate funds local budgets implementation of measures to promote employment of the population in areas with a tense situation in the labor market.
The new Decree did not include the norms on the collection of fees from able-bodied non-working citizens to finance public expenditures. At the same time, persons previously recognized as payers of this fee are exempted from paying it.
The Decree provides for a conceptually different approach aimed at stimulating able-bodied non-working citizens to legal employment. It is envisaged that from January 1, 2019, such persons will pay for state-subsidized services at their full cost. The specific list of such services is instructed to determine the Government.
The key role in organizing work to implement the norms of the Decree is assigned to local authorities. To do this, it is envisaged to create permanent commissions by local executive and administrative bodies, the main tasks of which are to assist citizens in finding employment.
The commissions will include deputies of all levels, specialists from local authorities, as well as representatives of public associations. As a rule, the chairmen of the Councils of Deputies will head the commissions created at the district level.
The decree gives the commissions broad powers, including making decisions on the release for a certain time of able-bodied citizens who are not employed in the economy from the obligation to pay for services at full cost if they have a difficult life situation.
To implement the Decree, the Government will adopt a number of resolutions, which will, among other things, determine the procedure for classifying able-bodied citizens as not employed in the economy, the list of services provided to these citizens at full cost, the procedure for calculating fees for these services and other issues.
In addition, it is envisaged that the Government will take measures aimed at intensifying preventive work with able-bodied non-working citizens leading an asocial lifestyle; activities of tax authorities to identify and tax the hidden income of individuals.
The decree comes into force after its official publication.
Want to know more about the Union State? Subscribe to our news on social networks.
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 "tax on parasitism", or, as officials called it, "collection to finance 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, "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 for 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 database 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 100% payment is added here 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 have the primary responsibility for fieldwork. 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.
