Russian youth want to pay taxes: 77,000 teenagers registered as self-employed

Walking the dog and selling handmade jewelry is now officially possible

The summer holidays are coming to an end: for many teenagers, this was the time of the first work experiences and the first independent earnings. Every year, young people in Russia are becoming more conscious: the guys want to work officially, without evading taxes. Not all employers are ready to hire a teenager who will almost certainly quit at the end of the summer, but the best compromise solution is to work in the status of self-employed. In 2022, 77,000 underage Russians chose this scenario.

You can register as a self-employed person in a matter of minutes – all you need is a passport and SNILS. For self-employed minors, the written consent of parents or legal representatives is additionally required. With their help, you will need to open a bank account to receive fees. The self-employed pay a small tax: 6% on income received from legal entities, and only 4% on income from individuals. If, for example, a teenager is walking the neighbor’s dog or babysitting the neighbor’s child and wants to formalize his income, he will only need to pay 4%. It doesn’t matter if you paid for the work in cash or transferred money to a card.

According to the Ministry of Economic Development, today the number of self-employed citizens under the age of 18 is about 77 thousand people – this is twice as much as it was a year ago, so the popularity of working status is steadily growing. The most conscientious young people live in Moscow (12,800 minors are registered as self-employed here), as well as in St. Petersburg (5,300 people) and the Moscow Region (4,300 people).

As lawyer Lyubov Shuryga told an MK correspondent in an interview, the status of a professional income tax payer (self-employed) also solves the issue of formalizing teenagers under an employment contract – it’s no secret that many companies prefer not to contact minors, fearing bureaucratic difficulties.

– Hiring minors is possible, but for the employer this turns into serious problems: the teenager needs to be provided with part-time work and monitor the observance of all his rights, and also be prepared for checks. In some companies, for example, in a cafe, this system is debugged, but other employers prefer not to take risks, – explains Shuryga. – Self-employment will be a good opportunity for a teenager to earn income with a minimum of encumbrances. Moreover, such a format disciplines: a young person learns to formalize his income, pay taxes, and does not plunge into dubious “gray” schemes.

The lawyer also added that there are flaws in this scheme: for example, a minor self-employed person cannot issue a work book (formal length of service will not be counted), and the employer will not pay contributions to the Pension Fund and other taxes for him. Therefore, Shuryga considers such a scheme more acceptable for temporary part-time work, and not for starting a full-fledged career (however, permanent work as a self-employed person is prohibited).

Popular self-employment options for teens are blogging, tutoring, childcare, crafts (such as making and selling handmade jewelry), someone can work as a translator, graphic designer, etc.

Earlier, lawyer Tatyana Nechaeva also noted that the advantage of self-employment for teenagers is that this format is well suited for irregular earnings – tax is charged only for the period for which there was earnings. “If, for example, you have exams now and you are temporarily not working part-time, then you don’t need to pay any tax,” the media quoted the lawyer as saying. This means that a teenager will not need to quit every time if he wants to give up work for the duration of the school year, and then get a job again. You can return to work as a self-employed person at any convenient time.