An organization has entered into a civil law agreement for transportation with IE. Inspectorate considered these relations to be labor relations and made an additional assessment of PIT and insurance contributions. The Arbitration Court of the East Siberian District supported the controllers, noting the following points:

The IEs were previously employed by the organization;
working conditions after the registration of entrepreneurs did not differ from the labor duties;
remuneration is the same as a salary, it was paid 2 times a month;
special accounts for IEs were not opened in the bank;
IE has no customers other than the organization;
1 company kept records with the organization and entrepreneurs;
IE does not own or lease any vehicles, and the services were rendered using the customer's vehicles;
IE does not have any business expenses.

In another case, the organization transferred the powers of the sole executive body to an IE. Inspectorate assessed additional PIT. The Commercial Court of the Volga Region also supported the inspectors and recognized the payment of remuneration to an IE as a hidden form of labor remuneration Among other things taken into account that:

the subject of the contract is not the end result, but continuous work;
remuneration is fixed, not for the amount of work;
the organization has no net profit, the IE’s remuneration was 26 times higher than the revenue;
the work schedules of the IE and the organization coincided.

Documents: Resolution of the Arbitration Court of the East Siberian District of 14.10.2024 in case No. A33-241/2022

Resolution of the Commercial Court of the Volga Region of 16.10.2024 in case No. A55-29482/2023

PIT and contributions: judicial practice of qualifying IE payments as a hidden form of labor remuneration