Repik reveals initiative for 'real' and 'not real' self-employed

The topic of self-employment requires serious analysis: on the one hand, it is necessary to allow a person to realize his creative function with a minimum tax, on the other hand, there has been a blurring of the boundaries between an entrepreneur and an employee. This opinion in an interview with RBC expressed the head of “Business Russia” Alexei Repik.

The experimental regime of self-employment is designed until the end of 2028 and the state promised to bring all such experiments to the end. “Does that mean there is no need to discuss what will happen next? No, it doesn't. If we understand that the regime is going to end in a year or two, we should sit down and start talking now about which categories it will remain. Thanks to RBC and those colleagues who “hear the ringing, but do not know where it is” and talk about our own initiatives for us, this discussion went public, said Repik.

Self-employment is a regime that "must be maintained," Repik said. But only in those categories where it is “real” self-employment, for example, hairdressers, tutors. Self-employment is popular among taxi drivers today, Repik cited the example, but it is necessary to separate a “real” self-employed taxi driver and an employee of a large company where he works as a taxi driver, he pointed out. A similar situation with warehouse workers: they are often decorated as self-employed, but in fact they are not.

“Then it turns out that from enterprises on a full-fledged system of taxation, employees go to where they receive money on their hands,” so in some segments, it is necessary to “prevent abuse, leveling the tax burden and parallel social guarantees on different regimes of taxation of activities, regardless of contractual registration,” Repik believes.

“In the future, the logic must be that. We have, say, 10 groups of self-employed: seven of them are “real” self-employed and three are “false.” This means that it will be necessary to leave seven groups in the contour of this regime and offer them conditions 40% better than before, due to the released resource.

In his opinion, the total resource in this way will be distributed “to those who need it, not to those who abuse benefits.” “While we have two years to complete the experiment – let’s use them in business, during this period we will definitely be able to find and agree on an effective model,” Repik said.

How to change the Automotive System

Repik confirmed the discussion about the thresholds for the use of AutoUSN - today the regime provides for a revenue threshold of 60 million rubles. per year, its users are exempt from VAT. For comparison: on the “classic” USN, the threshold without VAT is 20 million rubles. “Does AutoUSN in general be necessary? Not just necessary. The entire USN should be AutoUSN: everything should be automated. The question is: what should be the threshold for revenue? “Business Russia” has always been for the universality of approaches. In fact, 20 million rubles is a normal threshold. It's definitely not worth lowering. And in some categories it can be promoted, where it is a real small business. If you remove wholesale trade, it would be possible to save 60 million rubles without a dramatic effect on the budget, as before, Repik said.

At the same time, when any adjustments to the tax system for small businesses are discussed, for example, in the part of the USN with the object of “income” or “income minus expenses”, it is important not to look for an answer to the question “how to raise more money” and “how to squeeze an extra penny out of business,” Repik said. “Because it is not superfluous. Rather, on the contrary: let the tax be even less than it is now, but the regime will not generate a “gray sector” by its existence.

In the meantime, the dynamics of increasing the number of its users is suspicious in the part of AutoUSN, Repik said. “When the regime’s 50,000 users suddenly turn into 450,000, in my opinion, you have to look at what kind of fast-moving companies they are.” The most unpleasant thing is that on the usual USN with a VAT threshold of 20 million rubles. there were businesses that had just an increased threshold of 60 million rubles. (as on AutoUSN). - RBC would be nice. We are talking about the simplest and smallest regional businesses - hotels, coffee houses. And trading companies have switched to AutoUSN, in which we often see some kinship between themselves and, for example, with large importers - as a result, they compete with businesses operating on the main taxation system, he said.

As RBC previously wrote in the first five months of 2026, the number of users of AutoUSN increased to 444 thousand. “We understand the reason why this happened: because there is no VAT there. 87% of those who moved there moved from simplification. Another 12% moved from the common system, said the head of the analytical department of the Federal Tax Service Roman Khoroshev.

Read the full text of the interview with Alexei Repik in the RBC subscription.