Self-employed workers (Directive 2010/41/EU and some relevant provisions of the Recast Directive)

• Author: Biljana Kotevska
• Pages: 50-55

50

8 Self-employed workers (Directive 2010/41/EU and some relevant

provisions of the Recast Directive)

8.1 General (legal) context

8.1.1 Surveys and reports on the specific difficulties o f self-employed workers

No surveys or reports have been published that provide insights into the specific difficulties

that self-employed workers face.

8.1.2 Other issues

The number of persons that a re registered as per the law as self- employed is quite low.

There are more persons , however, who work as self-employed but stay unregistered and

thus outside of the system, including outside of the social security benefits system. Many

of these persons work in the IT sector, and/or provide various consultancy, translation and

similar services and work with partners from outside of the country.

8.1.3 Overview of national acts

No single act regulates self-employed workers. Provisions can be found scattered in various

laws, such as the Law on Health and Safety; the Law on Employment and Insurance in

case of Un employment; the Law on Health Insurance; the Law on Pension and Disability

Insurance; and the Law on Contributions for Mandatory Social Insurance.

8.1.4 Political and societal debate and pending legislative proposals

While no surveys or reports have been published on the matter o f gender equality in self-

employment, it must be emphasised that the issue has drawn attention and triggered

public debate, but fo r a different reason. Namely, a ri se in personal income tax – which

aims for a more just distribution of income and fair taxes – was introduced. With this,

people who earn abo ve EUR 1 500 per month will pay income tax of 18 % on every euro

above EUR 1 500, instead of the usual 10 % tax, which is applicable to income below or

equal to EUR 1 500 per month.

Commentators have argued that this will disproportionately affect sel f-employed people.

As mentioned above, while the n umber of registered self-employed people may be l ow,

many unregistered people work in the IT sector and/or provide various consultancy,

translation and similar services and work with partners f rom outside t he country.

Considering that the national average salary is close to EUR 400, these people are

considered to be disproportionately better off than the average citizens of the country,

therefore they should be taxed accordingly. However , issues of precariousness, instability

of income, income at the family level, wealth and property status, and so on, were not

taken into consideration when d evising these legislative amendments , potentially

discriminating against self-employed people compared to people who work in a secure,

public sector job and who live in a family where two or more people earn an average

income.

An additional debate was stirred up due to the suspension of these provisions and the

removal of this tax a few months later. This change happened with the change of the

Minister of Fin ances. The n ew minister announced that the tax was being postponed

indefinetly because the new tax had failed to produce the expected results and affected

businesses disproportionately. The analysis on which the ministry claims to have based its

decision has not yet been published.