As part of the new season of the "V-Kurse-Rublia" podcast, dedicated to key trends in the Russian economy, a discussion on the self-employment regime and its socioeconomic aspects took place. Ekaterina Papchenkova, Director of Center for Evidence-Based-Expertise at the Gaidar Institute, took part in the podcast titled "The number of self-employed in Russia is growing. How will their lives change in the coming years."
The scale of this tax regime's development was analyzed during the discussion: from 2019, when approximately 300.000 self-employed individuals were registered, their number exceeded 14 mn by the end of summer 2025.
Ekaterina Papchenkova noted the regime's high effectiveness: "This regime has demonstrated very good results: 55% of the self-employed are new actors in the labor market. Consolidated professional income tax revenues have demonstrated significant growth from approximately Rb 2 bn in 2019 to almost Rb 100 bn in 2024."
One of the topics under discussion related to social guarantees for this category. Ekaterina Papchenkova stated that the key problem remains the lack of mandatory pension savings and insurance coverage. In the future, it could happen that the self-employed will only be able to claim a social pension paid at an elder age. Moreover, according to data from early 2025, only approximately 55.000 self-employed individuals made voluntary pension contributions.
The potential consequences of expected legislative changes, including the impact of the new law on the platform economy have been tackled in the course of the discussion. It cited data from a Federal Tax Service (FTS) survey, which evidenced that 64% of self-employed individuals consider ceasing their activities or switching to the informal sector if the regime is tightened, while only 10% consider switching to traditional employment.
The podcast is available for listening on podcast platforms and on a website of "Tinkoff Journal"