Millions of self-employed Russians will be left without a “normal” pension
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No matter how much the authorities advise us to take care of our old age and save money, we do not really follow such recommendations. According to the Ministry of Labor, only 3% of self-employed Russians make insurance contributions to the Social (old style – Pension) fund. What awaits them in their later years? Will 97% of defaulters be able to save money for their well-deserved retirement, so as not to deny themselves anything? MK asked an expert about the unenviable fate of such self-employed people.
Of the 8 million self-employed people in our country, only 258 thousand people make voluntary contributions to their pension, that is, 3.2%. The average amount of deductions for 9 months of this year per payer was 13.7 thousand rubles. For the same period in 2022, it was slightly less – 11.3 thousand.
Self-employed status was introduced in Russia in 2019. This year several hundred people registered. But since then this army has been constantly increasing. If in 2022 there were about 6 million, then this year, according to the Federal Tax Service, their number has increased to 8 million people.
There are objective prerequisites for this. In particular, a simple registration scheme, without any bureaucratic rigmarole. The main thing is the preferential tax regime. A self-employed person only pays 4-6% tax on his income and does not have any accounting records. There is no obligation to pay taxes to the Social Fund. Everything is on a voluntary basis.
Perhaps these advantages allow a self-employed Russian to earn good money and save money for a rainy day – after all, he has no one else to rely on, only his own strength. However, there is no official confirmation that representatives of this “profession” bask in luxury.
According to experts, the monthly income of the self-employed is highly dependent on the specialty in which the services are provided. And on the region of residence: in large cities their income is higher than in the Russian outback. However, according to the Federal Tax Service, last year up to 30% of registered self-employed people had zero income. In general, in our unstable times, it is easier to survive crises not alone, but in a team, that is, working under an employment contract. After all, unlike hired workers, the self-employed do not have any social guarantees or social package. No vacation pay, no sick pay. As they say, helping drowning people is the work of the drowning people themselves.
What are the prospects for the self-employed to save for retirement? We asked Doctor of Economic Sciences, Vice-Rector of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Alexander Safonov about this.
“Let’s proceed from the following,” he replied. — If a self-employed person does not pay insurance contributions to the Social Fund, then in the future he will not have the right to receive an insurance pension.
– That’s probably right. At least in relation to those who, during their work experience of 30 years, make such deductions…
– Yes, the Social Fund does not form any obligations in relation to this person; in the future it will not have any expenses in relation to this person. A citizen who does not take care of his old age will face serious problems in old age
— Will he be left without a pension at all?
— Will receive social security in the form of the minimum wage for the subject of the Federation. Even in this case, the state takes care of him.
– What about the asking price? How much does the Social (Pension) Fund budget lose on self-employed defaulters?
— Eight million self-employed people is a big number. Let’s roughly calculate how much additional money would flow into the Social Fund if they all started thinking about old age. For example, let’s take the average salary of 45 thousand rubles. The monthly contribution from one person would be about 10 thousand rubles, for a year – 120 thousand. We multiply by 8 million and get 960 billion rubles annually. Almost a trillion, which would remain in the federal budget, which would reduce the amount of subsidies to the Social Fund. This money could be spent on some other necessary purposes.
– A huge amount. Is it possible to involve the self-employed in the pension system by order? For their own good…
– No, this is a voluntary matter, everyone decides for themselves. In addition to the self-employed, there are other categories of the working-age population in the country that have benefits in paying insurance premiums. This is also a problem.
Newspaper headline:
Save your pension from a young age
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