A Just Russia – For Truth party’s group has submitted a number of draft laws proposing to abolish the patent system for employment of foreign nationals in Russia for consideration to the State Duma (Russia’s lower chamber of parliament).
TASS says amendments are offered to the law on the legal status of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation, tax and budget codes of the Russian Federation.
The bill proposes to introduce a general rule under which an employer and a customer of works (services) have the right to attract and use foreign workers only with permission to attract and use foreign workers, and a foreign worker has the right to carry out labor activities only if he/she has a work permit.
At the same time, all foreign labor migrants will be required to pay full amounts of personal income tax provided for citizens of the Russian Federation.
The bill authors note that such amounts will be higher than those currently collected at fixed advance payment rates.
Russia’s migration legislation and the practice of regulating labor migration are continuing to use patents as a special form of work permit document for foreign nationals.
Current cost of a patent in Russia varies from 2,724 Russian rubles to 10,929 Russian rubles depending on the country’s region.
Since 2015, foreign workers coming to Russia in a visa-free regime can work on the basis of special license and documents, so-called labor patent.
The patent purchased by migrants in favor of the federal and local budgets allows them to work legally in all kinds of commercial enterprises and private households. In this case, the foreign citizen does not require a work permit, but is obliged to obtain a patent for a job in Russia. The patent system involves a more simple procedure of employing foreign employees, as well as a special procedure of taxation of the labor of these employees.
