The mechanisms available to the authorities for whitewashing the labor market were discussed on June 30 at a meeting in the Federation Council. The discussion was, in particular, about identifying cases of substitution of labor relations with civil contracts with self-employed people. Work to consolidate the signs of labor relations continues. At the same time, officials are introducing indicators signaling possible shadow employment. Now, according to Federal Tax Service estimates, 0.4%, or 4.5 thousand, of all companies that hire self-employed people are at risk.
At a meeting held in the Federation Council on ways to combat shadow employment, they talked primarily about replacing labor relations with civil law ones, that is, contracts with the self-employed instead of hiring. As Tatyana Malenko, deputy director of the Department of Remuneration, Labor Relations and Social Partnership of the Ministry of Labor, reported, during the autumn session the State Duma will consider a bill aimed at establishing the facts of such a substitution.
These amendments will enshrine in the Labor Code the characteristics of labor relations, including their stable nature, days off and vacations, subordination and dependence of labor (see. “Kommersant” dated June 18, 2025).
At the same time, officials continue to work on risk indicators, if triggered, Rostrud can initiate an inspection of the company. These include working with more than 35 self-employed people for three months, if 75% of their income comes from this one organization, and the average monthly income itself exceeds 35 thousand rubles. As Tatyana Malenko noted, a new risk indicator is also planned, when more than ten employees with employment contracts in the next quarter switched to civil contracts in the same organization (with their average monthly income above 25 thousand rubles).
The Federal Tax Service also has its own criteria for identifying gray employment. According to the head of the department of taxation of personal income and administration of insurance premiums, Mikhail Sergeev, tax authorities pay attention, in particular, to the frequency of payments to the self-employed, their registration as such from one IP address, and also to whether the organization is the only source of income for the self-employed.
Now, according to the Federal Tax Service, about 0.4% of companies that attract self-employed people fall into the risk group—that’s about 4.5 thousand legal entities.
In relation to such employers, the Federal Tax Service independently conducts an inspection and, if it establishes the fact of an employment relationship, accrues additional personal income tax and social contributions to the organization (without offsetting the taxes already paid by the self-employed) or sends materials to regional interdepartmental commissions to combat illegal employment.
These commissions invite employers to provide explanations and propose to eliminate violations. We are talking not only about cases of substitution of labor relations, but also about improper registration of employees or wages below the minimum wage. At the same time, employers have no obligation to implement the recommendations of the commissions.
As explained by the head of the department for federal supervision in the sphere of labor of Rostrud, Dmitry Demidenko, the commissions are not government agencies, so they do not have administrative powers. However, there is still an effect from their activities. According to Mikhail Sergeev, in 2025, about 150 thousand employers were invited to the commission’s meetings – about 66 thousand of them then raised salaries or legalized their employees (217 thousand individuals who are not self-employed). This, according to the Federal Tax Service, ensured the receipt of 33 billion rubles into the budgets. Personal income tax and social contributions.
Organizations and individual entrepreneurs caught in gray hiring schemes are included in the register of unscrupulous employers, explained Dmitry Demidenko. Now there are about 650 employers, of which 80% are individual entrepreneurs.
However, he added, being included in the register only entails reputational risks, so the possibility of depriving such employers of regional support measures is now being discussed. According to Mr. Demidenko, such proposals came from regional interdepartmental commissions – Moscow, for example, already has similar experience.
