Since January, modifications to the Tax Code came into force, according to which the remuneration received by the elderly by decision of the general meeting of neighbors in their houses and entrances was subject to insurance premiums of 30%, explains one of the authors of the report. letter, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Construction, Housing and Communal Services of the State Duma, Svetlana Razvorotneva. Previously, only 13% of personal income tax was paid on these amounts. Previously, the Ministry of Finance believed that the payment of insurance premiums with these sums was mandatory, but the management organizations managed to defend the interests of the house councils in court.
Previously, the Ministry of Finance believed that the payment of insurance premiums from these amounts was mandatory. “Insurance contributions were applied to payments to members and chairmen of the house council until 2024. The contributors are management organizations or homeowners’ associations, housing cooperatives. That is, the members and chairmen of the house buildings themselves apartments (MKD) do not pay contributions, “they told Rossiyskaya Gazeta in the press service of the Ministry of Finance. – At the same time, the law, which came into force in 2024, clarified the procedure for paying insurance premiums for payments to members of the council and the president of the apartment complex. in the event that such payments are made through a management organization (without creating a HOA or a residential complex)”.
However, previously management organizations managed to defend the interests of house councils in court.
Courts, previously considering cases about presidents’ income, for example, noted that these were not payments for services or work under an employment contract. The elders of the house are rather representatives of the residents who oversee the services provided by the management company. Most residents of high-rise buildings do not have enough time and energy to delve into building management issues, formulate an agenda for the general meeting, monitor repairs and record poor quality of services, the letter notes. Therefore, they can entrust representation to the building’s board of directors, which often includes active retirement-age residents with plenty of time on their hands. Now the Tax Code is clear and it is more profitable for pensioners to abandon this activity. And the houses will be left without quality control of services.
In most cases, rewards for activists amount to between 3,000 and 7,000 rubles. per month. Now 43% of these amounts must go to taxes and insurance fees. This has seriously reduced the number of people willing to serve on the house council, the letter’s authors point out. For example, in the Ulyanovsk and Kostroma regions, about 25% of the chairmen and members of the house councils have already resigned, and in Udmurtia – 30%.
“I am a young retiree, I have a lot of energy and since 2018 I have been the president of the Chamber Council,” says Svetlana Ivanova from Kostroma. The president is constantly in contact with both the residents and the management company. Someone calls, someone writes about problems in the whole house chat. You have to understand the legal issues, go to the authorities and find out, for example, if it is possible to attach a plot of land to the house so you can park there. He tours the apartments during general meetings, to which almost no one attends. For this, residents pay the president 100 rubles per month per apartment. If everyone has paid, you will receive 4,500 rubles. minus 13% taxes (and if not all, then less). After paying insurance premiums, a little more than 2 thousand rubles will remain available. This is less than the amount of pension indexation to which Svetlana has lost her right. In a month or two, the president plans to resign from office. The question now is where to find a new one. “Men will not do this for such symbolic money. Young mothers who are on maternity leave will lose the right to receive child benefits,” says Ivanova. “They wrote on the Internet that this is done so that the chairman of the house council has the right to sick leave, vacation, etc.,” she recalls. “But I can’t imagine how it can work. Who and how this will fall to me.”
And Tamara Muschinkina from Izhevsk has already resigned from the post of president that she held for four years. Residents paid 1 ruble per square meter for their household chores; In total, before deducting 13% tax, it was about 6.5 thousand rubles. per month. But with insurance premiums, the remuneration is reduced to 3 thousand per month with a loss of 2 thousand rubles per month. pension indexation. “Now the management company should probably organize a neighborhood meeting to elect a new president,” she says. But it is difficult to imagine who will fill this position. Pensioners will not want to do this in such financial situations and young people do not have the time to do it.
At the same time, due to the small amount of remunerations, which are also not established in all MKDs, large budgetary revenues are not expected from the innovations, the authors of the letter emphasize.
The State Duma has already prepared several bills on how to correct the situation. Among the options are recognizing relations with the Chamber Council as employment relations only if the general assembly of residents so decides, equating activists with self-employed workers, granting them rental benefits, etc.
In this case, logically, we cannot talk about labor relations, says Nikita Chulochnikov, president of the AKON Association. House council members do not provide services to management organizations; They receive compensation from residents as compensation for the time and effort they put into resolving general house issues. In addition, due to the actual absence of an employer, members of the house council, despite retaining insurance premiums, will not be able to take advantage of the social guarantees for which they are designed: receiving sick benefits, paid vacations, etc. The requirement to pay insurance premiums can lead not only to the departure of MKD council chairmen, but also to the use of obscure and shadow remuneration mechanisms, says Chulochnikov. Among other things, the existence of the house council eliminates the need to expand the staff of management organizations working with the population, reduces the costs of scarce personnel and slows down the growth of rents. AKON also sent the Ministry of Finance a request to cancel the insurance premiums of activist residents.
Rossiyskaya Gazeta sent a request to the Ministry of Construction.
