For remote workers, a single personal income tax rate is introduced. What does this mean for employees and employers

The President recently signed law, which establishes a single tax rate on personal income for those who work for Russian companies remotely in Russia and abroad. In many cases, the rate will be 13%, and on income in excess of 5 million per year - 15%.

The changes will affect those who work under an employment contract and those who provide services under a contract. civil law. For the former, the innovations will come into force from 2024, for the latter, from 2025.

Let's find out what will change for employees and their employers, and figure out how companies can interact with departed colleagues so as not to break the law.

What will change in terms of paying taxes

The tax code has positionthat tax non-residents must pay personal income tax at 30%. To lose resident status, you need to spend more than 183 days a year outside the country - not necessarily in a row. Therefore, tax rates were discussed a lot, since among Russians in 2022 and 2023 there were quite a few who lost their status.

Against the background of 30 percent, 13 look good, so some were happy with the law. But not everything is so clear-cut here. Much depends on what the employee has written in employment contract.

If the document not indicatedthat a person performs duties abroad, then until the loss of residence, the employer transfers 13% for him personal income tax, after the loss - recalculates the tax on all income for the year at a rate of 30%. If the employment contract specifies a foreign state as the place of work, then the company ceases to be a tax agent. The employee himself must pay contributions for himself until the loss of residence at a rate of 13%. After the deprivation of the status, he owes nothing to this state.

The law introduces a single rate. And someone will pay 13% instead of 30%, and someone else instead of zero. But companies should be pleased with this approach, since now it will not be necessary to monitor what employees with residency have and how to calculate their taxes.

How can an employer pay tax for a departed employee now?

Until the new rules come into force, we will have to act the old fashioned way. Therefore, if your employee is going move, you need to know about some things.

Documentation

The person with whom the company cooperates on GPC is free to move anywhere. The employment contract is a slightly different story. The Ministry of Labor periodically writes lettersthat the Labor Code of the Russian Federation does not provide for the conclusion of an employment contract with those who permanently live abroad. Because Russian standards do not reach there, which means that the company is not able to provide safe working conditions. But there is no prohibition in the code. And the new law, which establishes a single personal income tax rate for remote workers from abroad, including under an employment contract, hints that this is possible.

Another thing is that it may be convenient for an employer to break an employment contract with an employee and conclude a GPC. This will pay less insurance premiumswhich we will discuss below.

If the staff member remained the same when moving, it is worth signing an additional agreement to the employment contract and specifying the place of work abroad in it. However, this applies only to those who moved to another country a long time ago. For those leaving just now, it makes little sense to do this: residency will be lost only in six months, and there the new norms will already work. However, you can play it safe.

taxes

Above, we have already partially touched on this topic, but to make it clearer, it is better to discuss it with examples.

Let us have two employees who left the country on January 1st. Vasya's documents (employment contract or GPC) indicate that he works from abroad. Kolya's place of work is not defined.

For Kolya, the tax agent is the company. She pays personal income tax for him in the amount of 13% until the day when he loses tax residency, that is, until July 2. The accounting department will then withhold 30% of his income. It will also recalculate tax from January 1 at a new rate and will deduct it from new salaries up to 20% from them. If by the end of the year it is not possible to keep all the arrears at such a pace, the company will transfer the data to the tax office. The balance will need to be paid to the employee next year upon notification from the Federal Tax Service.

It's easier with Vasya. He works abroad according to documents, and his taxes are his headache. The company does not withhold personal income tax from him. He will have to pay the tax for the first six months on his own, before submitting declaration 3-personal income tax. After the loss of tax residency, Vasya does not need to pay taxes to the Russian Federation. But, perhaps, it is necessary in the host country. But the company shouldn't care.

If Kolya had left the country not in January, but in April, and an additional agreement on working abroad would have been concluded with him before leaving, the company in the first three months would accrue personal income tax to him at 13%, and after he lost his residency, he would recalculate the tax at a rate of 30%. Because legally he still received money from a source in Russia, and such income is taxed under these rules.

Insurance premiums

Both the employment contract and the GPC agreement assume that the company deducts insurance premiums for a person at a single rate - 30% of income. But at employment contract you need to pay additional contributions for injuries (0.2–8.5% depending on the risk class), but not for GPC, unless it is separately stated in the document.