State support for self-employed citizens during the coronavirus pandemic

Abstract

The subject of this research is the support measures provided by the government Russian Federation for self-employed citizens who fall under a special tax regime “tax on professional income” in the conditions of the spread of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19). The experiment of implementation of a special tax regime and the adoption of measures to support self-employed population in the time of pandemic plays an important role for the Russian economy. Legalization of activity of the growing number of self-employed citizens is the indicator of awareness and the manifestation of legal culture of the Russian population, and support provided by the government testifies to their participation in well-being of the population. Successful accomplishment of the set task is reflected in the statistics – as of December 31,.2020, the number of self-employed population amounted to 1,603,638 persons, while in the beginning of the pandemic it was 563,722 persons across the Russian Federation. The authors determine the two types of state support measures: general measures for businesses and the self-employed; as well as special measures intended solely for the self-employed. The application of systematic, formal-legal, comparative-legal, and structural-functional methods, allows examining the state support measures for the self-employed within the framework of implementation of the economic function by the government. Analysis is conducted on the actual statistical data and recent amendments to the legislation. The scientific novelty and practical importance of this work lies in comprehensive examination of the key measures of provided by the government of the Russian Federation for self-employed citizens in the time of COVID-19 pandemic, as well as in comparative analysis with the measures provided in foreign countries. Special attention is given to the comparative analysis of state support measures in Russia and Germany.