Officials hope that if successful, the FMS patent initiative will bring considerable revenue to regional budgets
And the head of the State Duma committee on constitutional legislation and state building, Vladimir Pligin, advocated for introducing the law as early as July 1. Although the bill is still being prepared, its main parameters have become known. Thus, the fee for a patent may be set at 1,000 rubles – and a Ukrainian nanny, a Moldavian plasterer, or an Azerbaijani driver will turn into legal workers. The money collected in this way will replenish regional budgets.
The FMS proposals to issue patents are not new. For example, in 2006, Russian citizens received the right to become entrepreneurs by purchasing patents from local tax authorities for the right to carry out certain activities. The cost of patents is 6% of annual income by type of activity (there are 69 in total). For example, in Moscow, individual entrepreneur registration became widespread, and the possible annual income from repair and construction of housing and other buildings is estimated at 225,000 rubles. That means the patent costs 13,500 rubles.
However, this initiative stalled – only a few thousand people acquired patents. The fact is that initially, one could work under a patent only if the entrepreneur did not use hired labor and was engaged only in a specific type of business. To make the patent more popular, changes have been made to the Tax Code since 2009, allowing patent entrepreneurs to hire up to five people, and the list of activities they can engage in has been expanded.
The idea proposed by the FMS could become quite viable: firstly, by purchasing a patent, both the labor migrant and the local employer (an individual) get rid of possible claims from tax and other regulatory bodies. Secondly, with the help of a patent, the relationship between the service provider and the purchaser is recorded in the databases of tax and migration authorities, which can help in conflict situations. Finally, local budgets will significantly increase revenues if the FMS patent initiative succeeds.
According to Romodanovsky, the document will allow the legalization of hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of foreigners (most of those working in the domestic services sector in Russia are outside the legal framework and are poorly accounted for).
To obtain the document, foreign nannies, dacha builders, or apartment renovators will need to present to the territorial FMS body a civil law contract with the employer or its draft, which will be signed after receiving the patent, as well as a passport.
"Currently, there is a discussion among the bill's developers – whether to immediately require a health certificate from the migrant or allow them to present it to the UFMS later. After all, when a person first arrives in Russia, they may not have money for a medical examination. Possibly, in the by-laws to the bill, a deadline will be set within which the foreigner must provide a medical certificate confirming the absence of infectious diseases. Otherwise, the patent must be annulled," one of the authors of the document, an FMS employee, told a Gazeta correspondent.
He noted that annulling the patent will not be difficult. Most likely, it will be issued in the form of a plastic card or a paper certificate with an electronic medium, on which information about its owner will be recorded, including place of employment, residential address, and account status. It is assumed that the migrant will be able to pay for the patent at a bank for one or several months in advance.
Information about each payment should immediately enter a special FMS database and be recorded on the card. If a foreigner with a patent for work with private individuals is caught, for example, at a construction site, the card will be annulled, and both the migrant and his actual employer will be fined.
"We think that employers will have no reason to refuse to sign a contract with their nannies or guards. After all, purchasing a patent exempts both parties from paying taxes. If a person changes jobs and goes to work for another family, he must notify the UFMS authorities, and the data on his card will be automatically updated," noted a source of a Gazeta correspondent.
It is planned that FMS employees will periodically check the accuracy of the information provided by the migrant, and if they discover that no housekeeper from Tashkent works at the specified address, her patent will already be invalid.
"I have a request to the FMS, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to submit the bill to the State Duma as quickly as possible," responded Vice Premier Alexander Zhukov, who was present at the board meeting. Romodanovsky emphasized that this measure will bring considerable income to regional budgets: "Over the past two years, the number of foreign citizens who have officially obtained permission to carry out labor activities has more than tripled. At the same time, 2.6 billion rubles have been received into the budget as state fees."
Muscovites use foreign labor services more often than any other Russians. So the bill may perhaps settle the disagreements that have arisen between the Moscow authorities and the FMS. Recall that at the end of January, the city government prepared an order according to which, from February 1 of this year, the FMS will provide temporary registration in the city only to those citizens who, along with other documents, have provided an extract from the register confirming the conclusion of a residential lease agreement. Extracts from the register on the conclusion of a rental agreement can be obtained at the Moscow City Rental Housing Center. At the same time, even those who allow a relative from another city to live for free will have to conclude a lease agreement and register it.
In response, FMS press secretary Konstantin Poltoranin issued a statement: "Information has appeared that the Moscow authorities allegedly decided on a special registration of documents in the capital's institutions for obtaining temporary registration. In response, we emphasize: no special registration of documents will be required by FMS units in Moscow," the press secretary emphasized then. And a few days after this statement, Valery Goryunov, first deputy director general of the Moscow City Rental Housing Center, said that the Moscow government's resolution does not contain requirements for mandatory registration of lease agreements in the city register.
"Now, if the bill works, the Moscow budget will be significantly replenished through the sale of patents, which will compensate for losses from renting out apartments by dishonest Muscovites without paying taxes," notes a Gazeta source in the FMS. "After all, the money from the sale of patents will go to the treasuries of the constituent entities."
However, he expressed doubts about the need to adopt the law so that it would come into force as early as July 1, as Vladimir Pligin stated at the FMS board. "The cost of creating a unified FMS database, producing the necessary number of portable reading devices, cards, etc., has not yet been accurately calculated," he said.
As for those illegal migrants in Russia who cannot find work at enterprises or with private individuals, they will be sent home promptly. Alexander Zhukov addressed the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FMS: "We need to be ready, when a large number of people lose their jobs, so they don't hang around here, they will need to be quickly sent home."