A third of the self-employed plan to change the tax regime

Registration as self-employed removes restrictions on career growth and professional development of employees that are characteristic of employment. This opinion was expressed by the majority of self-employed citizens surveyed by the consulting company Strategy Partners. 65% of respondents noted that “professional qualifications cannot be sold in a decent way” – if you do not work as a self-employed person. This position explains the growing interest in this tax regime: in July 2022, the number of self-employed people exceeded 5.4 million compared to 3.9 million in 2021. In total, last year the self-employed earned more than 800 billion rubles.

The main source of orders in this sector of the labor market are online platforms. 89% of respondents use online services for work (this share is higher among the self-employed under the age of 25 – 92%, among older people it is 72%). Previously, experts have already noted the interest of the self-employed in platforms and called for a revision of the regulation of labor relations, since the current system cannot provide social guarantees to such workers (see Kommersant of September 20, 2021). In the departments, they answered that self-employment is only a tax regime, and not a full-fledged form of labor relations.

As the study showed, within the sector, a division of workers into two groups is forming – self-employed professionals (63% of respondents consider themselves to be this group) and self-employed entrepreneurs (37%). At the same time, the latter are more satisfied with their success than self-employed professionals (68% versus 55%). At the same time, both of them are interested in advanced training for further self-realization – 63% in their field of activity, 37% in the field of entrepreneurship (economic law, marketing, taxes).

Most of the self-employed are satisfied with the current tax regime (40% of respondents). Some respondents are ready to abandon it and open an individual entrepreneur (16%) or create a legal entity (18%). Another 4% are ready to go into the gray economy – one of the reasons for this may be the lack of flexibility of the regime. For example, going into the illegal sector may make it impossible for the self-employed to work together: 62% of respondents consider it necessary to allow in some situations to work with other self-employed without uniting into a single company.

Diana Galieva