A place in the sun: why it is necessary to whitewash the personnel market

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation supported an experiment to increase the transparency of the recruitment market, but proposed postponing its start from September 1 to November 1, 2026. The project, provided for by the order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated June 18, 2026, will allow customers to involve third-party organizations to temporarily provide employees and independently calculate the taxes of performers with the transfer of funds to their Single Tax Account. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.

Tax avoidance

The Russian market for recruitment, employee provision and outsourcing of business processes in 2025 amounted to about 570 billion rubles. At the same time, in 2026, due to the continuing acute shortage of personnel, the turnover of this industry will continue to grow and may exceed 660 billion rubles.

According to the most cautious estimates of experts, 15-20% of the services market, which amounts to over 100 billion rubles, may be located in the "gray" zone (or the zone of tax optimization, as it is preferred to be called in business circles). Due to such schemes, VAT budget losses may exceed 20 billion rubles. Additionally, with a reduction in official salaries or the use of fictitious self-employed, the state may lose more than 15 billion rubles in insurance premiums and personal income tax. As a result, the total amount of taxes lost in this area may amount to over 35 billion rubles annually.

At the same time, in Russia, from 5.5 million to 24.9 million people can participate in shadow employment in all areas. The minimum estimate includes only fully illegally employed citizens, while the maximum also takes into account those who receive part of their income informally, have undeclared part-time jobs, or hide part of their earnings.

About 7.5 million people are ready to switch to the official employment format, and the legalization of such workers can give the budget up to 889 billion rubles. The main areas with a high proportion of informal employment are construction and repair, trade and logistics. At the same time, the main reason for leaving for "gray" employment remains the flexibility of work, as well as the opportunity to receive more money without tax and insurance deductions.

From gray to white

From September 1, 2026 to September 1, 2027, an experiment on whitewashing the personnel supply market will take place in Russia. The project will be implemented on the basis of the order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated June 18, 2026. The essence of the mechanism is that the customer independently calculates tax obligations and transfers part of the funds to the Single Tax Account (ENS) of the contractor or the individual contractor. This approach should ensure a complete and timely calculation of taxes.

The 34 largest companies operating in the retail and e-commerce sectors will participate in the experiment. The project provides for the distribution of tax payments as follows: the customer will provide 100% of the payment for the USN and NAP (professional income tax), 75% for VAT and insurance premiums, and 50% for personal income tax.

First of all, the initiative is aimed at automatically reducing tax risks, combating shadow schemes and creating the same conditions for companies that comply with legal requirements. At the same time, the mechanism assumes operation without the appointment of unscheduled on-site inspections.

The government wants to ensure that companies that hire employees through recruitment agencies or outsourcing cannot hide taxes. Now the scheme often looks like this: a company does not hire people directly, but through an intermediary. The intermediary must pay salary taxes, VAT, and contributions himself, but some unscrupulous companies may underestimate payments, register employees as self-employed, or use fictitious companies.

During the experiment, the customer himself will calculate how much taxes the contractor must pay, and transfer this money immediately to his Unified Tax Account (ENS). In other words, the money for taxes will be controlled on the customer's side, and not just by the intermediary.

For example, a store needs 100 temporary workers, and it attracts them through a recruitment agency. Previously, all calculations and taxes for employees were carried out by the agency itself. As part of the experiment, the store will additionally participate in this process: calculate the necessary tax amounts and transfer them to the agency's account for further payment.

Objectives of the experiment

The experiment is aimed at creating equal competitive conditions for bona fide market participants by reducing tax risks, administrative burden and switching to a partner model of interaction between the Federal Tax Service and business, the federal service told Izvestia. Companies that are exposed to risks are given the opportunity to eliminate them promptly without conducting tax audits. As a result, a more transparent, secure and predictable market is being formed with the exclusion of "gray" schemes and unscrupulous intermediaries. Based on the results of the experiment, a single industry model will be formed, which, if effective, can be extended to other sectors of the economy.

The government can determine the effectiveness of the experiment by several indicators, and among the main criteria are an increase in tax revenues to the budget, a decrease in the number of claims from the Federal Tax Service to companies and a reduction in the share of the gray sector in a particular industry, Peter Shcherbachenko, associate professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia. If the experiment shows a positive result, it can be extended to other areas of the economy.

If the customer assumes the function of calculating and transferring taxes for the company providing staff, this can increase the transparency of financial flows and the responsibility of market participants, Sergei Chernogaev, chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia, told Izvestia. But at the same time, it is important that such a mechanism does not become a way to legalize actual borrowed labor or a tool for avoiding a full-fledged employment contract where it should be applied.

"Any changes in the regulation of the recruitment market should be accompanied by effective control and participation of the state and trade unions in order to bring the industry out of the gray zone, rather than create new opportunities to circumvent labor laws," he said.

At the same time, participation in an experiment to whitewash the personnel supply market creates some risks for customers. In particular, they may be related to the work of the Company and the reliability of contractor data. For example, funds transferred by the customer may be automatically allocated to repay the agency's old debts under the rules of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which is why current tax obligations for staff will remain unfulfilled. In addition, the customer calculates the amounts based on the registers provided by the contractor: errors in the number of employees, concealment of information about migrants, the self-employed, or the use of unreliable SNILS can lead to problems. At the same time, monitoring the tax purity of second- and third-level subcontractors also remains almost impossible.

Another risk for business is the possibility of mistaken recognition of temporary workers as full—time employees of the company. If the customer manages the agency's employees himself: sets a schedule for them, gives them assignments and controls the work of his employees, the state may decide that this is actually a normal employment relationship. In this case, companies can issue a fine and force them to pay additional insurance premiums and personal income tax. These and other issues will have to be worked out during the experiment.

Izvestia sent requests to the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Energy, but no responses had been received at the time of publication.