Finans: "Oleg Anisimov’s Personal Thoughts"
By Oleg Anisimov
Vladimir Putin's reform of the social premium system is revolutionary. It will influence not only businesses but also our private savings.
Starting January 1, 2010, the president of an oil company with a monthly salary of 100 million roubles will cost this company the same price as a cafeteria worker with a salary of 35,000 roubles. "We did it to prevent people with low or average salaries from getting the future pension payments of people with high salaries," Vladimir Putin said. (I wonder why poor people love him so much).
141,100 roubles will be the maximum sum that companies will have to pay annually for each worker. This is 34% of 415,000 roubles. If a worker's salary in a certain year is higher than that, the employer will not have to pay anything to social funds. The Russian unified social tax is progressive. A company pays 86,800 roubles (26% of 280,000 roubles of accrued revenue plus 10% of 140,000 roubles) for a cafeteria worker, and for the company's president the sum is much more serious - 2.9 million roubles annually (26% of 280,000 plus 10% of 320,000, plus 2% of 99.4 million roubles). In 2010, a president will cost 20 times less, and a cafeteria worker - 62% more. Generally, companies will pay 15-20% in social taxes.
Vladimir Putin promised that these expenses would be compensated with tax credits, but, given the abandoned plan on decreasing the VAT and reasonable individual income tax and income tax rates, it is not clear how this compensation would work.
The current reform is revolutionary - much like the abandonment of the progressive individual income tax and the implementation of a uniform rate of taxation, which is, by the way, one of the best in Europe. What changes will we face?
On the one hand, companies will start paying high salaries officially. Of course, they will have to pay a 13% individual income tax, but it will be taken from workers; besides, the cash conversion fee is not much lower that the tax sum. It would be profitable for companies to increase salaries and pay them officially, because on the one hand, workers would not suffer from the individual income tax and on the other, firms would get rid of illegal tax planning.
On the other hand, the effect could be the opposite - small and poor companies would not raise salaries, because they would have to pay 34 kopecks on every rouble instead of 26 kopecks. Therefore, this decision provides grounds for economic inequality, a serious negative effect. The Government has promised, however, to compensate expenses to small businesses working in agriculture and high technologies.
There is one more paradoxical consequence - for companies, an average worker will cost more, which will lead to higher work performance requirements. "Just what the doctor ordered," given the lack of qualified workforce.
