Where they cheat in calculating the Salary Tax: 33% or 43%

At the beginning of 2021, the procedure for calculating the amount of taxes on wages changed in the Russian Federation. The changes affect deductions when issuing wages that are less than the minimum wage for a citizen.

Transfers from salary to the Pension Fund will help ensure old age

Features of salary deductions to the Pension Fund

Here is an example of salary deductions: suppose a leading programmer receives 100,000 rubles per month. The organization where the employee works withholds personal income tax in the amount of 13,000 rubles. As a result, the employee will receive 87,000 rubles. Contributions for health and pension insurance are already received by the employer. Assuming that the company does not have the right to use reduced tariffs, social charges will be as follows:

• 22% - the amount of compulsory insurance (pension);
• 5.1% - the amount of medical insurance;
• 2.9% - the amount of deductions for temporary incapacity and due to maternity.

The organization transfers insurance premiums related to injuries to the fund. The amount of deductions is influenced by the assigned professional risk class - from 0.2% (class 1) to 8.5% (class 32). If we assume that the organization has been assigned the first risk class, the amount of deductions will be equal to 0.2%. The total amount of deductions will be 30.2%. This percentage is taken from accrued wages. In the example given, 30,200 Russian rubles are charged.

Pension accruals have a savings and insurance part

Who makes contributions to the Pension Fund

By law, citizens are not required to pay contributions for themselves to various insurance funds, including the Pension Fund. Employers do this instead:

• enterprises and organizations that use hired labor;
• individual entrepreneurs who do not involve outsiders in their business;
• individuals who do not have the status of an individual entrepreneur, but carry out professional activities;
• citizens who hire workers to provide day-to-day services, such as drivers or housekeepers.

There are often situations when the payer or employer belongs to several categories simultaneously. For example, an individual entrepreneur uses the services of a security guard or a maid. Then the obligations to pay contributions are differentiated.

Commercial organizations and individual entrepreneurs must pay contributions, regardless of the taxation system with which they have to work. Legal entities must pay and accrue insurance premiums on a monthly basis. In this situation, individual entrepreneurs have a greater choice: they can make insurance contributions quarterly or monthly. Each individual entrepreneur independently determines the optimal payment regime.

The future pension is formed by the employer from insurance contributions withheld from the employee’s salary

Is it possible not to pay a mandatory pension contribution?

Payment of the pension contribution is mandatory. Only voluntary cash contributions are allowed not to be paid. Funds are not deducted if the employer has registered the user as a “black” employee. In any case, the employee will not see that kind of money; most likely, the employer will not raise wages if a decision is made to relieve him of paying contributions and he wants to keep the money.

On what income do you not have to pay tax?

Citizens do not need to pay contributions to the Pension Fund from any income. A number of articles are considered an exception, and users are not punished for unpaid contributions to the treasury.

For what you are allowed not to pay taxes to the funds:

• maternity funds;
• unemployment benefits;
• compensation for unused vacation by a citizen.

Part of the taxes paid can be returned in the form of deductions. This is due to citizens who pay for doctors’ services or children’s education. The condition must be met that wage taxes must be paid regularly. Please keep in mind that tax deductions should not exceed the amount of taxes paid and the established limit of 260,000 rubles.

You may not have to pay tax on some income, such as unemployment benefits.

Reduced insurance premium rates in 2021

Most simplified residents must pay contributions at a general rate of 30 percent in 2021, as the preferential transition period will end.

A reduced rate of 20 percent was left for non-profit and charitable organizations on the simplified tax system. The benefit can be used until 2024.

There will be no planned increase in contributions for simplified residents who applied the general tariff. It was previously planned that from 2021 the general tariff would increase from 30 to 34 percent. Now the tariff remains at 30 percent in the code. The company's pension contributions must be calculated at a rate of 22 percent for payments within the limit and 10 percent for payments above the limit.

In 2021, companies and individual entrepreneurs specified in the list of Art. 427 Tax Code of the Russian Federation:

• IT companies
• airlines
• NPO on the simplified tax system
• charitable companies on the simplified tax system
• Skolkovo participants
• participants of the free economic zone of Crimea and Sevastopol
• residents of the port of Vladivostok

Deadlines for paying taxes on payroll

Most contributions today are administered by the Federal Tax Service. The Social Insurance Fund is responsible only for deductions related to injuries. The deadline for payment of such payments is no later than the 15th day of the month following the reporting month. For missing the deadline for paying contributions, a citizen will be held accountable and will have to pay a fine. A penalty will be charged for each delay. An individual entrepreneur is required to pay deductions from wages:

• for pension insurance;
• for health insurance.

Contributions must be paid, even if there is no income from the business or the citizen is not active. The exception to the rule is self-employed citizens. They do not pay mandatory contributions. Payment of payments becomes optional only if the individual entrepreneur is closed. However, there are temporary periods when an individual entrepreneur can receive a deferment on paid contributions: serving in the army, caring for children over one and a half years old or a disabled person.

Deductions are administered by the Federal Tax Service and the Social Insurance Fund

How much of your salary goes to the Pension Fund?

Ordinary Russians have to contribute 22% of their salary to the fund. However, this rate does not apply to everyone. Certain categories of citizens have the right to pay a smaller amount.

Situations related to changes in the established rate:

1. If the salary received exceeds a certain amount, the tax rate will be 10%.
2. Individual entrepreneurs without employees with low income need to pay a fixed amount, the amount of which is 29,354 Russian rubles. If an individual entrepreneur's earnings exceed 300 thousand, he must be paid at the standard rate.
3. The tax rate paid by non-residents of the Russian Federation, provided that they do not work under patents, is 13%. As for visitors with patents, their amount of royalties paid is fixed at a certain amount.
4. IT workers and animation content creators are charged 8%.
5. Business companies and clothing manufacturers must pay 20%. The same amount is charged to non-profit organizations, charities and pharmacies.

Some workers have better pension protection. Workers in hazardous industries must be paid more than 22%.

The employer contributes 22% to the Pension Fund

Employer's liability

An employer who pays “salaries in an envelope” violates the provisions of the Labor Code and may also be subject to punishment under the provisions of the Code of Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code.

Evidence that an employer pays illegal wages to its employees can be provided by a comparative analysis of the level of income and contributions to the salary fund conducted by regulatory authorities.

Also, this information may come from other employees; if it was made public in the media; if internal financial statements and “black” accounting were discovered; if the inspection revealed a discrepancy between the number of employees and the number on the statements.

Controlling authorities are responsible for holding the employer accountable. They can conduct inspections of the employer based on requests from citizens and decide on the need to choose a punishment for him if the facts of payment of black wages are confirmed.

They can also conduct inspections of the employer on their own initiative. If violations are detected, the employer may be held administratively liable as a legal entity, and the manager, under certain conditions, may be subject to criminal prosecution.

Administrative fine to the employer for black patching according to the provisions of Art. 122, 123 of the Tax Code is 20% of the amount of tax unpaid by the company (but not less than 1000 rubles). The employer may also be held administratively liable for failure to pay insurance premiums. Punishment for this offense involves payment of a fine in the amount of 5,000-10,000 rubles.

In some cases, for paying wages in an envelope, the employer faces punishment under the Criminal Code, Art. 199. This article refers to non-payment of taxes and fees on a large scale, namely in the amount of more than 2 million rubles, or if the share of unpaid taxes amounted to more than 10% of the amount of assessments.

Within the framework of Art. 199 of the Criminal Code, the employer faces punishment in the form of a large fine of 100,000-300,000 rubles, forced labor for up to 2 years, arrest for up to 6 months and imprisonment for up to 2 years. If there are qualifying features (aggravating circumstances), the fine can be increased to 200-500 thousand rubles.

Only the head of the company can be subject to criminal prosecution; it does not apply to legal entities.

According to statistics, punishment in the form of imprisonment for tax offenses is used quite rarely: only in 5% of cases, about 45% of those convicted are sentenced to a suspended sentence and 50% to a fine.

How to check if your employer makes contributions

You can check whether the employer makes contributions by contacting the Pension Fund at your place of residence. You must submit an application requesting an extract. To obtain reliable information, you must present your SNILS and passport. The user will receive data in the form of papers or an extract by email.

Another option is to look at the State Services portal. Thus, information can be obtained without queues and without a written application. The only inconvenience is that after the registration procedure you need to go through identification.