The vital activity and financial well-being of any state, its society are unthinkable without funds that are regularly donated by citizens to the “common piggy bank”. It finances the Pension Fund, compulsory health insurance funds, the State Employment Fund, and other insurance funds.
Deductions are made by all working citizens through the financial authorities of the enterprises where they work, from wages. Registered individual entrepreneurs are also obliged to donate funds. The amount of their deductions does not depend on the presence or absence of profit. Even if the entrepreneur did not carry out labor activities during the year, he is still obliged to make monetary contributions to off-budget funds. This is the current Russian legislation, in which these payments are referred to as insurance premiums.
Out of budget means inviolable
The money raised for state off-budget funds is federal property, but it is not subject to the principles used to allocate budget funds. They cannot be spent for any purpose, since they provide general social programs that are based on the concepts and provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. It guarantees every citizen social security in old age, in the event of illness, disability, in case the family loses its breadwinner, in situations where health protection and medical assistance are required, or a citizen must be protected from unemployment. Therefore, insurance premiums are especially compulsory payments. They cannot be withdrawn from extra-budgetary funds even if it is required to pay off the budget deficit.
Insurance premiums are paid on separate payment orders for each fund. Moreover, this year, insurance contributions to the Pension Fund are made with the help of one general payment order without breakdown into accumulative and insurance parts. Companies and enterprises pay monthly compulsory contributions within strictly defined terms. Payment is made and transferred by the 15th day of the month following the month in which contributions were made. The reporting period category is determined by one quarter, the first half of the year, 9 months and a year.
Delayed - pay a fine
For violations of the rules of the procedure for deductions and payments to extra-budgetary funds, various measures of responsibility are provided. If insurance premiums are paid at a later date, interest will be charged. For each day, they amount to one three hundredth of the Central Bank's refinancing rate for the specified period. Moreover, penalties can be collected forcibly by removing them from the bank accounts of the defaulter or at the expense of his property.
A more severe measure - a fine - can be applied to malicious individuals or legal entities who evade payment to extra-budgetary funds. It is imposed in case of incomplete payment of insurance premiums, or deliberate distortion of reporting. This is 20 percent of the amount of arrears; in more serious cases, the fine can reach 40 percent of the unpaid amount. The amount of the fine depends on the number of calendar days for which the delay occurred.
