Reforming business architecture is due to enhancing the economic potential to improve the quality of life
Such a vulnerable area as small and medium-sized business is sensitive to any innovations. Therefore, it was quite expected that the Law "On amendments of laws on business" would be vigorously debated. Let's try to objectively figure out why the state has taken these steps and whether there are real reasons for concern among those who honestly build their business and strive to succeed in it.
It is no coincidence that during a meeting with the leadership of the Council of Ministers in September 2022, the ¬President stressed that business should have clear rules for starting and growing, and the state should have a conscientious tax payer and partner in implementing development programs. And the new law follows this principle.
As of January 1, 2024, 252,482 people were registered as individual entrepreneurs. The issues of regulating their business activities have been raised over the past few years. In the context of increased competition between the self-employed, individual entrepreneurs and commercial organizations engaged in similar types of services and applying a simplified taxation system in their activities, it is quite obvious that there is a need to establish clearer rules of the game for these categories. And this is done through defining the types of economic activities for individual entrepreneurs.
This approach equalizes the economic conditions and makes more transparent the statistical accounting of the business sector, which will include artisans, the self-employed and agroecotourism subjects. We will receive a clear idea of the role of certain players in the market of relevant services. An important factor enhancing the social component of our economy will be the payment by individual entrepreneurs of contributions to the Social Insurance Fund, the amount of which is 29 percent of their self-determined income, but not lower than the minimum wage. And this can be seen as an extra incentive to scale the business.
Also, an important advantage for converting individual entrepreneurship into commercial organizations will be the opportunity to have state support both during registration (the state has simplified this procedure as much as possible and provided a long period for adaptation) and in further work. The only difficulty which seems to be unresolved yet is working on the Internet sites of Russian marketplaces (after changing the status, a new account must be created). This ¬problem is already known, and most likely a decision will also be made by representatives of public authorities to minimize risks.
Any transition, changes and innovations are perceived quite difficult by society. That is why national regulators are paying such serious attention to advisory work today, including through the media.
As for small businesses representatives interested in their development, they see the state as a reliable partner. This is confirmed by current sociology. As part of the BISR project "Pulse of Society" on the topic "Business and the state: ways of interaction", our Institute conducted an online survey of business representatives, which covered 2,137 individual entrepreneurs.
More than 64 percent of respondents see an increase in the effective interaction between the state and the business environment in strengthening the role of business unions in making government decisions, attracting business to interact with public administration bodies. The new law provides an optimal balance of interests of society, the state and business, corresponding to the basic principle of our model of socio-economic development — improving the standard and quality of life of the population.