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Why worry if you pay in an envelope

You got a new job. On payday, the accountant hands you an envelope.

You are in trouble: you are paid a gray salary, and you become an accomplice in crime.

Christina Frolova

What is a gray salary

Gray is a salary with which taxes are paid only partially. It consists of an official white part, from which deductions are made to the state, and from an unofficial part, from which taxes are not paid.

The scheme works like this: the employer enters into an agreement with you and assigns you a tiny official salary. From this tiny salary, he pays small taxes and contributions for you. He somehow cashes out the rest of the salary and gives it to you in an envelope, bypassing taxes, thereby saving.

According to the documents, it looks like the employer has low-paid employees. It's not illegal, although it's suspicious. But in fact, this is a tax evasion scheme - at your expense.

Perhaps this is money from an underground brothel or drug den.

No one knows where the employer takes gray money: from his own pocket or from money bought from cashiers. It may well be that the money in the envelope is money from an underground brothel or drug den.

Your employer can stop paying you at any time. Getting money in this situation will be difficult. That is why you should be aware of all the negative consequences of the salary in the envelope.

Criminal liability

The employer pays taxes on employees' salaries. He is a tax agent. But taxpayer of personal income tax is the worker himself. When you receive an unofficial part of the salary, you are breaking the law. If the case goes to court, it will be difficult to prove your non-involvement in the financial fraud of the employer. The court may decide that you were in a criminal conspiracy.

Punishment for a gray salary

According to Art. 122 Tax of the Code, the penalty for non-payment of taxes is 20 or 40% of the unpaid amount. 20% - if you have not paid taxes due to ignorance, 40% - if on purpose. If your official salary is 10,000 rubles, but you receive 100,000 in an envelope, for two years a 20% fine will be 62,400 rubles, and a 40% fine - 124,800 rubles.

According to Art. 198 of the Criminal Code, for non-payment of taxes you will pay more from 100,000 to 300,000 rubles on top or give away all of your salary or other income for 1 or 2 years. Either you will be punished with forced labor, arrested or put in jail for a year.

How to avoid: immediately write statements to the prosecutor's office and the tax office that the employer is evading taxes. This is enough for the authorities to start checking. Write a complaint about the violation of your rights to the labor inspectorate.

Applications and complaints are proof that you did not want to receive a gray salary.

Funny holiday

When you are going on vacation, be prepared for the fact that vacation pay will be much less than the salary in the envelope. For reporting, the accounting department will calculate vacation pay based on the official, and not on the actual salary.

You are flying to Crimea for 28 days from June 1st. Your official salary is 10,000 rubles, but you are paid 100,000. You did not get sick, did not receive bonuses and allowances. All 12 months before the holidays were in the office from Monday to Friday.

3 days before the trip, you expect to receive the usual advance payment in an envelope - 45,000 rubles. Instead, you are given 9556 rubles 31 kopecks - this is how much vacation pay you are entitled to by law based on your official salary.

Maybe otherwise. Some employers pay gray vacation pay in full. Others may not pay any vacation pay at all - they may only be on paper. In any case, you must understand the risks.

But the size of the official salary does not affect the receipt of a visa. The consulate can only find out if you work in the place indicated in the application form. The consulate cannot check your income.

How to avoid: check with colleagues in advance how vacation pay is paid. If it's white, talk to the employer. Perhaps in this conversation you will find out that you are not entitled to any vacation pay at all, and formally you have already spent your vacation for a long time.

A meager severance pay

According to the law, if the employer, on his own initiative, dismisses you due to a reduction in staff or during the liquidation of the company, he must pay you severance pay. Usually this is two average monthly earnings. If your official salary is 50 thousand, you did not receive additional bonuses, and the company cuts you, you will have to pay about 100 thousand - this is the law.

It is not difficult to guess that the severance pay is also calculated from the official salary.

You have been cut. If your salary would really be 10,000 rubles, you would hardly be upset. But in an envelope you are paid 100,000, and it will be a shame to lose them.

As a severance pay, instead of the gray 200,000 rubles, you are given two official average monthly earnings - about 20,322 rubles. You will have to live on them, although you are used to something else.

It happens even worse: the employer can force you to write a statement “of your own free will” upon dismissal - then you are not entitled to any payments. In a firm that fervently evades taxes, this is also possible.

How to avoid: try to convince the employer to give the full amount of your regular salary when you leave. But remember that if you ruin your relationship with him, then you will definitely be paid only the amount specified in the contract.

Then all you can do is write a complaint to the labor inspectorate or the prosecutor's office. You will punish the employer, but you will not receive money from him, and, most likely, you will also pay a tax penalty. If the gray salary backfired on you only when you were cut, the chances of restoring justice are slim.

Microhospital

If you are sick and have sick leave OK, by law, your employer must pay you benefits while you're in treatment. The same goes for caring for a child or a sick relative. By law, this benefit is calculated based on your official salary.

The official salary is 10,000 rubles. If your salary has not changed for 2 years, the amount of the allowance will be 3945 rubles 54 kopecks. This is enough for two packs of homeopathic balls.

How to avoid: just like with vacation pay - check with colleagues how sick leave is paid. Discuss all the formalities with the employer: maybe a sick leave is not needed at all, and your illness will not affect the salary. Some employers pay sick leave only on paper.

Nanopension

You earn 100,000. You are on a horse, although this amount is not enough for everything. But what will you live on in your old age?

From an official salary of 10,000 rubles, your employer deducts 2,200 for retirement. If your 100,000 were not gray, he would deduct 22,000. The difference is noticeable.

Unfortunately, in any case, there is no guarantee that you will have a decent pension. Even if your employer deducts 22,000 rubles a month, this does not mean that you will receive the same 22,000 in 40 years. The state can dispose of this money in some other way.

How to avoid: Talking to your boss won't help. It is unlikely that the employer will raise your official salary. If in the reporting the salaries of employees differ greatly, this will cause suspicions in the tax. She will start checking.

Denial of a large loan

With an official salary of 10,000, you will not be able to count on a mortgage or a car loan, except for a consumer one. Even if the gray part of the salary is much larger than the official one, you will have to forget about favorable percentages.

When a bank gives you a loan, it must assess the risks: whether you can pay off the loan from your salary and whether you can be fired without severance pay. Banks were not born yesterday and know what a gray salary is, so for many, this way of receiving money will be a risk factor.

Some banks, on the contrary, do not see the risk in gray wages. “The main thing is that you have money,” such banks think. But just in case, they also increase the interest on the loan.

In each case, the employee decides for himself whether to put up with a salary in an envelope or not. If you are about to buy an apartment or have a child, or you are going to retire, it is better to find another job.

In the following articles, we will talk about bonuses, allowances and payments due to the employee during processing.

conclusions

1. The employer does not pay taxes on gray wages.
2. The size and timing of the payment of gray wages are not officially fixed.
3. Paying and receiving a gray salary is a criminal offense.
4. Vacation, sick leave and severance pay are calculated from the official part of the salary.
5. The future pension depends on the size of the official salary.
6. Banks will not approve a mortgage if you have a small official part of the salary.

Gray salary allows you to save on taxes and contributions to the employee and the employer. But it is fraught with adverse financial consequences for the former.

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An employer can be held liable for concealing part of the wages of its employees.

word of law

The procedure for remuneration of an employee is regulated in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

It is in this codified act that it is determined that employees receive funds in the amount that is established in, concluded between them and the employer.

Also, this amount is indicated in accounting documents.

These legal acts define the procedure for payment and approval of the amount of wages, as well as its taxation.

The Tax Code of the Russian Federation establishes the responsibility of the employer for paying taxes not in full. If the amount of damage is significant, then this can lead to criminal liability.

What is convenient?

The gray salary is convenient, first of all, for the employer. It saves a lot on insurance premiums. Due to free funds, it becomes possible to attract more valuable personnel.

But an unscrupulous employer uses this scheme to put pressure on employees. In the event of a conflict, the employee receives the minimum white portion of their salary.

Difference from "white" and "black" schemes

Where can I report anonymously?

A complaint against the employer to the supervisory authorities will lead to a deterioration in relations between him and the employee.

Many want to avoid such consequences by sending anonymous appeals to supervisory authorities.

They are taken into account, but not always accompanied by the expected result.

To court

When applying to the court, you must prepare a statement of claim.

It should reflect the following points:

• the amount of the debt;
• claim for the recovery of interest for untimely paid funds;
• the requirement to indicate in official documents the real amount of wages.

How to prove a fact in court?

Perhaps each of us has come across such an expression as “gray salary”. And of course, each of us somehow understands the meaning of this term. In order to reveal in more detail the essence of this "phenomenon" in the labor sphere, as well as to bring to each employee a correct understanding of it, this article will be written.

To begin with, it is worth saying that in the field of workers connected by labor relations, in addition to gray wages, there are also such concepts as white wages and its opposite - black wages.

In modern Russia, any normal capable person seeks to find a job with higher pay.

And few people think about how legally and officially their work will be paid. Unfortunately, such carelessness can have a detrimental effect on both the employee and the employer.

Let's understand what is white, gray and black salaries?

White salary is a completely official salary, which is reflected in all payment documents, and from which personal income tax is deducted in the amount of 13%.

A gray salary is a salary, part of which the employee receives officially according to all financial documents of the organization, and the second part is “in an envelope”, bypassing all tax deductions.

Black salary - completely unaccounted for by any documents, illegal payments to an employee for his work. Such a salary is received by workers who are not officially employed.

White salary

If an employee is officially employed and receives an accounted white salary, then his organization minimizes his expenses, and the employee himself has ironclad guarantees of receiving his honestly earned profit.

Today, workers have ambiguous opinions about which salary is better: the official white one or the one in the envelope.

Moreover, neither employees nor employers have unity in this matter.

The opinion that it is not very beneficial for the employer to provide the social guarantees required by law to their employees in full is widespread among a fairly large number of managers.

In fact, this issue needs to be approached from different perspectives. So, for example, the growing need for consumer and mortgage loans forced us to rethink the legality of their earnings.

After all, an employee will be able to get a loan, sometimes so necessary, only with official confirmation of his salary from the place of work on the certificate of form 2 of personal income tax.

At the same time, the salary should allow the borrower to pay the loan in good faith on a monthly basis. If the employee is officially paid only part of the salary (usually the minimum possible), then most of the money earned remains in the shadows, since there is no way to officially confirm it with financial documents.

As a result, if an employee can get a loan, then for some insignificant amount.

Thus, in this situation, the official documented salary for the worker is undoubtedly the best option.

In addition, further prospects for retirement add food for thought. After all, the amount pension payments also formed from the official white salary. An employee who has worked at the enterprise for the minimum wage will receive the minimum pension.

In addition, many workers began to be wary and distrustful of bosses who promised to pay such "semi-legal" wages.

Since a serious company that values ​​its business reputation will never pay its employees money in an envelope.

In this regard, the issue of withholding tax deductions in the amount of 13% of the income received by the employee does not lose its relevance.

After all, taxes are not levied on unofficial salaries and more money remains on hand. Managers found a way out of this situation and decided to register their employees as individual entrepreneurs with a simplified taxation system.

In this case, the withholding tax is only 6% of the profit received. And with the employees themselves, the employer concludes a contract for the provision of services for compensation.

Such conditions are beneficial for both parties, since, on the one hand, the bosses receive decent personnel, and on the other hand, the workers themselves have a white salary.

The greatest financial effect from such a scheme is received by small organizations with small staff.

With such employment registration, however, there is one drawback - such workers will not be able to use all social guarantees, such as, for example, sick leave, time off for processing, etc.

When choosing employment according to this scheme, you need to weigh all the pros and cons.

Salary gray and black

The available statistics show that the gray salary scheme is in demand in big cities, as well as in the capital of our country.

Broken down by sectors of labor activity, semi-legal earnings are most common in the following areas: trade (wholesale/retail), construction, housing and communal services.

There are several reasons why many Russians are not at all embarrassed to receive most of their earnings in an envelope. Some see it as their own benefit.

One of the reasons is the opinion of workers that it makes no sense to make pension contributions from their salaries due to the inflation raging in the country.

It will be much more efficient to put aside part of the earned funds to the bank at interest, and by the time of retirement, monthly withdraw a certain amount from your bank account, necessary for living.

In this sense, the black salary provides even more "opportunities" to save for later. In addition, being officially unemployed, you can receive unemployment benefits.

So what is more in gray salaries: pluses or minuses?

Obviously, receiving earnings in an envelope, the employee has more real money on hand. In turn, the head of the organization also has its benefits, as it saves on payments to the tax office.

But here it is necessary to consider the reverse side of such savings for both participants in the labor relations.

Cons of gray wages

In the event of any disputable or open conflict situations, the employee may lose all allowances received informally and sit down on the minimum amount wages.

Summing up our article, we can confidently say that if you don’t want to get into trouble and ruin your working biography, you shouldn’t chase dubious benefits and look for loopholes in the law, since there is a high probability of being left without a job and without a decent pension.

Salary is a means of payment that is established by an employment contract or a civil law agreement for a citizen to carry out labor activities or as a reward for a service rendered, although in this capacity the salary is considered a fee.

Labor legislation obliges enterprises to pay contributions to various funds for each employee of the enterprise. The amount of contributions directly depends on the employee's salary: the higher it is, the greater the amount the employer will have to transfer to various fund institutions.

The employee is paid 13% of the salary as income tax However, the employer is obliged to pay:

• 22% of the employee's salary in Pension Fund;
• 2.9% - to the Social Insurance Fund;
• 5.1% - to the Fund compulsory medical insurance;
• 0.2% -8.5% - for insurance for the possibility of injury at the enterprise;
• premium to insurance premiums when performing work in heavy industries.

The employer must transfer at least 30% of the employee's salary to various funds, which ultimately does not allow for a large amount of profit.

Because of this, various methods of paying wages are used in Russia:

1. "White" salary. In this case, the employer transfers all funds to all funds, based on the real income of the employee.
2. Gray salary. In this case, the employee is paid the minimum wage, which is established in the region, based on which the employer makes contributions to various funds. The employer transfers the missing amount of salary to the employee “in an envelope”.
3. "Black" salary. Payment of income to an employee without formal employment. In this case, no amounts are transferred to the funds.

In case of informal employment or deliberate underestimation of the actual income of employees, the employer is liable to the law if the fact of such schemes is discovered by the supervisory authorities. On a general basis, the employer bears administrative responsibility, in special cases the responsibility may be criminal. On the territory of Russia, a large number of organizations pay workers a "gray" salary. Fortunately, every year the number of “black” salaries is decreasing, since it is simply unprofitable for employers to pay serious fines.

Employer's responsibility for gray wages

The responsibility of the employer before the law is primarily in the form of administrative punishment with the help of penalties or temporary suspension of the organization.

Failure to transfer tax payments is punishable by:

1. A penalty of 20% of personal income tax amounts to be paid within the specified period.
2. Penalty for refusal to pay the due amount of tax.

In accordance with Art. 108 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the imposition of penalties does not relieve the employer from paying previously unpaid tax liabilities.

In case of detection of violations during the inspection of the organization, an administrative or criminal case is initiated against the employer, depending on the specifics and extent of violations. In addition to fraud with taxes, the employer is also responsible for non-payment of insurance premiums to various funds.

Responsibility is as follows:

1. A fine of 20% of the amount of contributions that the employer has not paid to the relevant funds.
2. Penalty in the amount of 40% of the amount of unpaid contributions, if non-payment or underpayment occurred intentionally.
3. Penalties for late payments or repayment of fines.

The appointment of penalties does not exempt the employer from paying insurance premiums, therefore, in addition to the direct fine, all previously unpaid funds will have to be paid.

Responsibility of an employee for a gray salary

The responsibility of an employee when receiving a gray or black salary is in the form of penalties in accordance with the provisions of the Tax Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. Each working citizen is obliged to pay income tax in the amount of 13% of all earned funds. Non-payment of taxes, which are provided for by tax legislation, implies for the employee the forced collection of unpaid funds, as well as the imposition of a fine for concealing actual income.

In this case, for such an employee, various difficulties may arise, including:

1. Difficulties in obtaining a targeted or non-targeted loan, since the creditworthiness of a citizen without an official salary or with a low salary at the minimum wage level is very low estimated by banks.
2. Difficulties in obtaining a mortgage with state support, which allows you to pay part of the loan using income tax funds paid by the employee over the past few years to the state treasury.
3. The actual impossibility of collecting debt on wages if the employer refuses to pay the earned funds for any reason. Unfortunately, arbitrage practice is not on the side of the employee, because in fact, he carried out his labor activity on the salary of the minimum wage.
4. Risks associated with tax audit if the employee applies to the inspection authorities with a statement about non-payment of gray or black wages. In this case, the verification will be carried out not only in relation to the employer, but also in relation to the applicant, because for the specified periods of work, the employee did not pay a large amount of personal income tax to the state treasury. In this case, the employee will be required to pay all unpaid taxes due to concealment of actual income.

For an employee of an organization, “gray” wages can be reflected in the most unfavorable way, since it does not guarantee the fulfillment of obligations to pay wages by the employer, and also does not allow the employee to count on any bonuses when applying for a loan.

They don't pay gray wages

Most often, workers who receive "gray" wages face problems of non-payment of the due funds for labor activity for the benefit of the enterprise. It is not so easy to collect labor remuneration from the employer, since the enterprise does not always have black accounting, and the employee often does not have evidence of receiving more wages than indicated in the employment contract.

To collect debt on a “gray” salary, you must follow the following principles:

1. It is necessary to find a witness who would confirm the actual payment of the increased salary, which was not taken into account when calculating the tax and other obligations of the employer.
2. Find other evidence. In particular, some organizations issue a certificate of the employee's real income in order to obtain a loan. Such a document can be good evidence even in the absence of witnesses.
3. Attach an application and copies of all documents that may later go to court to the appeal for the employer. The same document should indicate that in case of refusal to resolve the problem peacefully, the application will be submitted to the court for further consideration of the dispute. Usually, when such requirements are established on such grounds, the employer agrees to pay the employee all the money due to him in full, since the penalties for each unofficially arranged employee are very high.

The recovery of underpaid wages can be significantly delayed, as the employer can do all he can to cheat and constantly mislead the employee. Therefore, after filing an appeal, the employer is recommended to wait a few days and then go to court.

Where to complain

In case of non-payment of wages or the imposition of "gray" wages, the employee has the right to apply to various state institutions to protect their rights.

A citizen can apply to the following state structures:

1. Federal tax office. An application is submitted to this institution that the employer pays a “gray” salary and conducts double bookkeeping to hide the actual income of the enterprise. The appeal can be either personal or anonymous. At the request of the person, an audit of the organization begins.
2. Labour Inspectorate. This institution is engaged in protecting the rights of workers, so contacting the inspection should be one of the first actions in case of a significant violation of labor laws.
3. Prosecutor's office. This institution is engaged in the protection of the rights of citizens in any area, so the prosecutor's office is one of the essential bodies of influence on violators of the law.
4. Court. Most often, employees go to court, as the judiciary protects the rights of all persons whose rights have been violated.

With the exception of the tax authorities, other institutions must be contacted in person. Anonymous investigation and anonymous protection of the rights of employees is not allowed either in court or in the prosecutor's office. In addition to the appeal, it is necessary mandatory provision evidence of shadow wage payments.

The struggle of the state with gray wages

Every year the legislation on the regulation of "gray" and "black" wages is tightened, since according to official statistics, the unofficial income of workers is about 40% of GDP. Most often victims of shadow schemes with salary become immigrants from neighboring countries who are ready to work literally for a minimum income.

To date, the punishment for gray and black wages for employers is:

• for individual entrepreneurs: 1,000 - 5,000 rubles;
• For legal entities: 30,000 - 50,000 rubles;
• suspension of the organization's activities for up to 90 days.

Legislators propose to toughen penalties in the field of fines. It is assumed that the liability of individual entrepreneurs will increase to 7,000 rubles, and of legal entities - up to 70,000 rubles. At the same time, it is already planned to bring the employer to criminal liability for debt on insurance or tax payments if it exceeds 2 million rubles.

Cons and pros of a gray salary

The positive and negative aspects of receiving a gray salary must be considered through the prism of the benefits of each of the parties of labor relations - for the employee and for the employer.

The pros and cons for participants in labor relations are as follows:

Positive sides		Negative sides
For an employee	For the employer	For an employee	For the employer
Withholding a low income tax, it is withheld only from the minimum official salary, while the bulk of the income is paid in full.	Decrease in the size of the taxable base, because due to the low wages of employees, the employer transfers smaller funds to various insurance funds.	The possibility of not receiving the full amount of income, since the employment contract does not stipulate the full amount of the salary.	Administrative responsibility in the form of a fine and enforcement hidden tax base.
Reduction in alimony payments if the employee is a person liable to alimony.	Possibility not to pay increased wages in case of dismissal of an employee or liquidation of an enterprise.	Recovery from the employee of all unpaid personal income tax for the period of employment for a "gray" salary.	Criminal liability if the amount of debt for taxes and contributions to funds is more than 2 million rubles.

“Gray” and “black” salaries are a real problem for the state economy, since multibillion-dollar payments to various funds are lost every year due to illegal concealment of income. However, the legislation does not give citizens an alternative, forcing them to participate in the transfer of funds to the Pension Fund, which provides a meager pension with the ongoing policy of increasing the retirement age, as well as to other funds. Perhaps if the state allowed citizens to decide for themselves how to manage the full amount of their income and independently participate in the formation of pension savings without the “mandatory” part, the situation with unofficial salaries could change radically.

It is necessary to draw up an employment contract, which stipulates working conditions and wages. All payments to employees, the organization is required to reflect in the accounting. From the accrued wages for work, the following are paid to the budget:

• income tax individuals;
• insurance premiums.

Such a payment system is called white in everyday life. Unfortunately, it is not always used. There are also gray and black ways of reward.

Black, or unofficial reward

What is a black salary? Some organizations still practice the payment of unofficial remuneration for work, the so-called salary in an envelope. When working in a black-and-white manner, an agreement is not concluded with an employee, the payment of income is not fixed anywhere. Taxes from black payments are not calculated and are not transferred to the budget, but “in an envelope” an employee often receives an amount even more than with official employment.

With this form of labor relations, the employee does not have any social guarantees. He is unlikely to be given consumer credit, he is not entitled to expect payment:

• sick leave;
• holiday pay;
• dismissal compensation.

Such payments are possible at the decision of the head, but are not guaranteed in any way. It is also a real situation that an employee will never receive payment for the work already performed - there is nothing to prove the fact of fulfillment of labor duties, there are no entries in the work book.

The employee does not accumulate seniority, therefore, he will receive a pension only in minimum size. And recently, under the new system of calculating pensions, cases of refusal to pay pensions began to appear if the length of service and wage payments are insufficient.

Partially official gray reward

In addition to the practice of paying all wages unofficially, there is a so-called gray wage scheme.

Let's explain what a gray salary means. This is a system in which part of the remuneration for work is paid officially, taxes are charged from it, an employment contract is concluded with the employee, which indicates the white part. At the same time, the second part of the salary - gray - is paid in cash "in an envelope."

In a situation of gray pay, the employee is more protected. He accumulates insurance experience, he is paid sick leave, vacation pay and other social benefits. But the size of these payments is minimal, the calculation is based on the official (white) wages.

What measures to combat the payment of black wages are being taken by the state

The payment of informal (black and gray) wages is closely related to the so-called cashing out Money. Such operations are actively fought tax authorities, increasing controlling. So, in recent years:

• A VAT ASC system was introduced and debugged, which checks the company's operations according to VAT reporting;
• the use of online cash registers is gradually introduced for all business entities;
• licenses are actively withdrawn from banks suspected of carrying out cash-out operations.

All this makes the process of withdrawing funds from taxation more and more difficult and risky.

Also, inspections by the labor and tax inspections. When analyzing the company's activities, regulatory authorities receive information on the level of payments to employees from tax and statistical reporting. If the amount of wages paid is low, they conduct inspections, call for commissions at the Federal Tax Service.

In order to combat gray and black wages and to improve the lives of citizens of the Russian Federation in the field of wages and pension provision on the website of the Russian Public Initiative (ROI) a vote is taking place, within the framework of which it is proposed:

• toughen the responsibility of employers for the payment of gray wages up to criminal liability;
• increase the number of checks on the completeness and timeliness of payments.

The initiative is clear, Rosstat announced that the volume of gray wages for 2018 amounted to 13 trillion rubles, which is 12.6% of the country's GDP for last year. Officials consider these figures to be a catastrophe, the money goes past taxes, insurance premiums are not deducted from the funds, and the budget receives enormous amounts. But the initiative's stated goals are unlikely to kill gray and black payroll schemes. In the context of the prohibition and shifting the burden of financial responsibility from the state to the citizens themselves, the most likely result will be another stimulation of corruption, and the employer's response will be the closure or transfer of business abroad.

Responsibility of employer and employee

In the event that the fact of paying black or gray wages, the organization faces liability for tax evasion:

• accrual of penalties (clause 2) and a fine () in the amount of 20% of underestimated taxes;
• collection of arrears, penalties and fines in an indisputable manner;
• criminal liability (Article 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) in the form of a fine of up to 300,000 rubles. or imprisonment up to 2 years. If they prove that the violation was committed by a group of persons by prior agreement or the amount of additional charges turns out to be very large, then the fine will increase to 500,000 rubles. And those who committed an act by conspiracy are threatened with imprisonment for up to six years.

The Federal Tax Service, which declares an increase in the number and quality of salary checks in 2020, considers that not only the employer, but also the employee is responsible for the salary in the envelope. If an employee at the time of employment knew what a black salary meant and voluntarily agreed to such an employment relationship, then he is an accomplice in an economic crime, and it is permissible to bring him to justice. Indeed, with this form of remuneration, the employee does not pay personal income tax from his income to the budget, and also hides the illegal actions of the employer.

The employee, as well as the organization, has the right to impose a fine for non-payment of tax, and to oblige him to pay the previously unpaid personal income tax to the budget. According to the norms, for non-payment of taxes, a fine of 5% of the amount of unpaid tax for each month overdue is provided. And if a systematic evasion of personal income tax is revealed, the non-payer will be held criminally liable.

It will be possible to avoid liability only if the employer misled the employee. That is, on paper, he drew up an employment contract with him, but did not reflect in the accounting the fact of the work of a citizen and the amount of wages paid to him. The Federal Tax Service is waiting for the employee to independently declare the use of gray schemes by the employer. How the employee will have to do this is not explained. Apparently, the form is free, contact to choose from - from the phone to a written message to the postal address of the tax.

Thus, if the company's management has a question about how to pay a black salary, it is necessary to weigh all the pros and cons and evaluate the problems that will arise when revealing the fact of paying wages "in an envelope". And when applying for a job, an employee should remember that with gray or black schemes without proper registration employment contract he is deprived of many social guarantees and runs the risk, having completed the work, to be left without a salary and get fined.