Black wages: what is it and how is it dangerous for an employee?

Legislation

If we consider this issue from the point of view of legislation, then there are no types of wages. Only one is officially established - white, and it is regulated by Chapter 6 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. There are no restrictions on setting the size and payment procedure. However, the following aspects must be observed:

• the salary cannot be less than the minimum wage
• minimum payment frequency: 2 times a month

The Tax Code assigns wages the status of basic income and withholds a tax of 13% of the total amount.

Video about white and black salaries:

How does it feel for the employee?

White wages have their pros and cons for both the employer and the employee. Let's look at them separately.

The benefits for the employee include his social security:

• Pension contributions are calculated from official income.
• Legal sick leave and maternity benefits.
• When receiving a loan, banks require proof of income in Form 2-NDFL. Such a certificate cannot be issued for a salary “in an envelope”; it is impossible to get a loan from a bank.
• An employer cannot unreasonably deprive an employee of part of his salary or bonus.
• The organization has no right to withhold wages.
• Upon dismissal or layoff, the employer is obliged to pay everything due to the employee.
• If an organization violates its payment obligations, the employee has grounds to sue by presenting evidence.

The disadvantages of a white salary for an employee are not obvious. Occurs in special cases:

1. Often employers “win back” their costs on employees. The official salary under the contract is lower than the regional average for a similar position in “gray” companies.
2. Official wages are not beneficial to debtors. Debts are collected from her. Unofficial income is easy to hide.

To be fair, we note that these schemes are illegal.

Types of salaries

So, there are three types of wages, described in Table 1.

Regulatory regulation is available only for one - white, but in special cases it can extend to gray and black.

What an employer expects for a black salary:

How to prove black and gray wages?

If you decide to prove your real income, you can:

• contact the accounting department for a certificate of your actual income. For example, to obtain a loan. This will be documentary evidence of the presence of a gray salary;
• find witnesses willing to confirm the size of your true income (colleagues, family members);
• collect all kinds of payments issued by the employer: pay slips, copies of statements, salaries and other documents;
• Record on a voice recorder the employer’s words about paying you money in an envelope, etc.

If you want to officially show your salary, collect evidence of payment of gray or black money.

Differences between types of remuneration

Table 2. Main differences between all types of wages.

The choice of one type or another should be based not only on short-term, but also on long-term benefits.

Unofficial salary

By analogy with the “white” official salary, there are also unofficial ones – “black” and “gray”.

These are forms of remuneration that, partially or entirely, do not go through any document of the enterprise, but are simply given to the employee in cash, often in a thick white envelope that reliably hides its contents from prying eyes. Hence the well-established popular name - “salary in an envelope.” Now we will find out what it is, what it consists of, how it is paid and why such a concept even exists.

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What's more profitable?

It is impossible to determine the benefit of each salary in absolute terms - everything is individual. However, there are templates that will allow you to determine the most appropriate option:

1. White - beneficial if the employee needs to receive official sick leave, as well as an old-age pension. Everything is taken into account and documented.
2. Gray is beneficial when the employee does not care too much about the privileges of officialdom, and in exchange for them he is ready for increased wages.
3. Black - there is a benefit only in cases where high pay is expected for work. You won’t have to pay any taxes or anything else—the full amount goes to the employee. However, there is a high risk of not getting it.

In some cases, they may intersect with each other, but basically everything is divided into similar profiles.

Partially official gray reward

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

Let us explain what a gray salary means. This is a system in which part of the remuneration for labor is paid officially, taxes are calculated on it, and an employment contract is concluded with the employee, in which the white part is indicated. At the same time, the second part of the salary - the gray one - is paid in cash “in an envelope”.

In a gray payment situation, 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 made based on the official (white) salary.

Employee: is a white salary necessary?

So, what benefits and disadvantages does an employee have with an official salary (see Table 3).

Some of them may no longer be relevant in the future due to changes in legislation.

Advantages and disadvantages of white salary

Now a little about the positive and some negative aspects of legal wages. Among the advantages of official income, it is worth dwelling on the following:

1. All salaries are fully calculated and controlled by the employee. He can calculate in advance the amount of income due to him. Taxes are calculated from this salary and transfers are made to insurance and pension funds. This means that the worker will be compensated for the entire period of incapacity for work (if such occurs), benefits will be paid to the pregnant woman before and after the birth of the baby, and payment for the due leave will be calculated correctly and guaranteed, the duration of which cannot be less than that established by law (28 days).
2. If the employment relationship is terminated, the worker will receive full payment for all periods of non-vacation leave, severance pay (in case of layoff), and in some cases even additional financial assistance. The latter will depend on the terms of the company's collective agreement.
3. The ability to confirm your level of regular official income with a certificate from your employer allows you to apply for a loan from a bank and get money for a mortgage. After all, financial institutions use government databases for inspections. They can make requests to the company to confirm the level of solvency of the employee.
4. Considering that personal income tax is also deducted from wages, in some cases a citizen can claim tax deductions and return part of this amount from the state budget. For example, when paying for your own training.

Employer: what does he get from his white salary?

Employers are also concerned with the type of wages they pay employees (see Table 4).

Important: the main role in analyzing the advantages and disadvantages for the employer is played by the jurisdiction in which the company’s main office is located.

Is it possible to prove in court the payment of unofficial wages?

Many employees deceived by their employers do not go to court, believing that if wages were paid to them unofficially in person, then it is impossible to prove anything. This is not entirely true: it is difficult to prove that the salary was paid in an envelope, but it is possible.

The main evidence can be voice recordings (and almost every mobile phone now has a voice recorder), testimonies of other employees, newspaper advertisements in which employers often carelessly write the proposed salary (higher than what employees with an official salary in a similar position usually receive), etc. similar.

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Risks of gray and black schemes

All the main risks of gray and black wages are based on non-payment. The fact that they are not officially counted plays a key role in the case of applying for a loan from a bank or forming pension savings. The lack of legal protection for employees also increases the risk of being deceived.

A partial exception is the gray salary, since it contains part of the white one. As a rule, it is always less, which has consequences for official accounting. However, with it you can count on at least some payments.

Why is receiving black wages bad?

We’ve figured out how unofficial earnings can affect you. But you can think about yourself. (Or not, but then that’s just your problem.) Much more seriously, black wages harm society as a whole.

You are helping criminals

And we are not just talking about economic crimes in the form of tax evasion.

Inna Anisimova

General Director of the PR Partner agency.

One of the main problems in Russia is that the law is not respected everywhere. People do not pay taxes, even if they can easily pay them, they drive at top speed when they are not in a hurry, they litter next to the trash can. But this feeling of impunity is illusory: thousands of people die in car accidents every year, the planet is inexorably polluted, and businessmen who hand out salaries in envelopes noticeably limit themselves and the development of their business.

It’s especially pity for the graduating students who receive their first salaries as blacks. They begin to think that this is how the world works. This is dangerous, because laws exist precisely to set reasonable boundaries in society. If one law is designated as non-binding, people begin to question others. What else is acceptable: not paying taxes, stealing, opening an illegal business?

What harms society the most is not the fact of black wages itself, but the hypocrisy that comes with it. Everyone knows that something illegal is happening, but they diligently pretend that it is not so. This gives rise to distrust of the world and others. The cynicism that comes with non-compliance with the law then spreads to how people behave, how they raise children and communicate with each other.

You contribute to higher taxes

While you are rejoicing at how cleverly they came up with a way to evade taxes, because the state still spends money on the wrong things, it is dissatisfied with the size of the fees. In some cases, the authorities use carrots in the form of a law on self-employed people with deductions much less than personal income tax.

But the state will still get its way, for example through an increase in other taxes.

You support irresponsible business

Leave conversations about how an employee and an employer unite in a single impulse in the fight against an unfair inspection for Friday drinking parties. The scheme in which there is an evil state and poor, unhappy everyone else is very naive. Especially if the “victims” make every effort to shape the world in which they live.

The business of a healthy person, when increasing capital, can spend money sparingly, but one day it must reach a level that implies social responsibility. Companies with black wages, regardless of income, will work only for their own pocket. When they pay money in an envelope, they are not at all concerned about you. They think only about themselves, and this is unlikely to change.

Konstantin Nigmatzyanov

Chief accountant of Win Pay company.

Black wages develop an extremely negative social trend. People are taught to think that a “bad” state does not allow companies to work normally, while a “good” company gives an employee the penny he needs in an envelope.

At the same time, due to the prevalence of this practice, employees begin to perceive this as the norm, because “everyone does.” As a result, cash turnover in the country is growing, the shadow sector of the economy is rejoicing, and Rosfinmonitoring is clutching its head, and completely white firms are blocked under 115-FZ.

Which exit? Switch to cashless payments, pay taxes and not increase entropy. If you want a healthy economy, start with yourself.

You are moving in the opposite direction of the legal society

“It’s not a shame to steal from the state,” “You would also steal if you were in his place,” “Laws are written in order to break them”—the three pillars on which the collective Russian legal consciousness rests.

You can’t throw garbage on the lawn and then complain to the utility companies that they don’t clean up the dirt everywhere.

That is, technically, of course, it is possible. A lot of people live like this in Russia. But if you, in principle, expect to someday live better - not you personally, but with a certain community that surrounds you - such a position will lead nowhere. So yes, you are personally to blame for the current lawlessness and decline.

Share the article with those who continue to think that black wages are a way to deceive the state. It will not miss its goal in any case, but this approach will backfire on an illegal employee.

Formation of tax payments

A greater understanding of how white wages work will come from the tax calculation example (see Table 5).

Total: if an employee receives 40,000 rubles, then 17,280 rubles go to the state. — the employer pays this difference.

Employer's responsibility to pay salary

An employer who does not pay wages on time may be subject to the following liability:

1. Disciplinary. Provided by Art. 192 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation - implies a reprimand, reprimand or dismissal of the responsible person.
2. Material. Regulated by art. 234 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation - the employee is compensated for delayed wages.
3. Administrative. Liability is provided in accordance with Art. 5.27 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation - a fine of up to 70,000 rubles is issued.
4. Criminal. Arrest for up to two years is expected if intentional retention is discovered during the investigation.

Responsibility is imposed on an individual basis.

Complaint to the Federal Tax Service and the Labor Inspectorate

You can write a complaint about the payment of black wages in free form, but to speed up the consideration of the application it is better to use a template.

You can submit in three simple ways:

• contact the Federal Tax Service or TI in person: come to the office and submit a completed application
• send via a form on the official website of one of the services
• send a message by mail: registered letter to the address of the territorial office of the service

The processing time for an application is usually 30 days.

Employer's liability

Employers who pay salaries in an envelope can be fined large sums by regulatory organizations. An employer who hires an employee without official registration violates the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. For such acts, the head of the organization will be punished under articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code.

Controlling authorities conclude that there are illegal payments after:

• analysis of the level of expenses of the organization’s employees and salaries paid at this enterprise;
• receipt of an application to one of the state regulatory organizations (tax, labor inspectorate, prosecutor's office) from employees dissatisfied with the current situation;
• the appearance of information about hidden income on the Internet, newspapers;
• financial audits of the enterprise;
• reconciling the number of people present at workplaces with the number of persons indicated in the accounting statements.

To hold an employer accountable, you need to prove the fact of payment of “black wages.” Control authorities carry out inspections:

1. after receiving an application from workers;
2. according to the instructions of higher organizations.

Identification of violations of workers' rights leads to the bringing of a legal entity to administrative liability, and the manager to criminal punishment.

LLC, individual entrepreneur and other types of legal entities are subject to a fine for black patching. According to Art. 122, 123 of the Tax Code, an amount of 20% of the amount of tax not transferred to the treasury will be collected from the enterprise. An organization for failure to pay insurance premiums for its employees will be fined from 5,000 to 10,000 rubles.

For failure to pay personal income tax for citizens working at the enterprise in an amount exceeding 2 million rubles, the employer will be punished under Article 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The head of the company will go to prison, and government authorities will collect a large sum of money from the organization.

Judicial practice shows that in our country, punishment in the form of restriction of freedom is rarely applied for such acts. What threatens the employer for black wages, non-payment of taxes, concealment of income:

• in every second lawsuit, the defendant is awarded a large fine;
• suspended sentences in 45% of trials;
• sent to prison in 5% of cases.

What to do if you don’t pay a black salary

First of all, you should talk to the manager, but if he does not make concessions, then there is only one way out - appealing to the Federal Tax Service and the court. In the vast majority of cases, a court case for the payment of black wages is organized, unless the management decides to settle everything out of court. However, in order to win the debate, it is necessary to provide significant evidence such as payment receipts, witness statements, photographs, etc.

So, how profitable and whether it is worth receiving a white salary - everyone will decide for themselves. However, it is always worth paying special attention to this issue at the interview stage. This will avoid disputes in the future.

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The essence of black wages

Often employers are trying so hard to reduce their tax payments that they hire employees without officially registering them. In this case, there is no need to conclude an employment contract or make entries in the work book, even if it is located at the enterprise at the request of management. In this case, wages are paid exclusively in envelopes. The amount of payments can vary from minimal to quite high. For example, the minimum wage in Moscow is now 15,000 rubles.

Carrying out such financial transactions requires certain efforts from the employer in the form of double bookkeeping: unaccounted revenue goes into the black salary. This option is considered convenient for entrepreneurs who deal with sales of goods, transportation, that is, areas of business in which there is a constant cash flow. In the future, it is used to pay salaries in envelopes.

This scheme also works in real estate offices. Only a few real estate agents can be officially registered, while the remaining eight or nine work without any registration and receive a percentage of the transaction. This salary is precisely black.

Another option could be the following: when a shell company is opened, which is closed immediately after making black payments, and the employer, it turns out, legally transferred money for payment.