White salary. Official and unofficial salary

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Many are familiar with such a thing as a white salary. Heard about blacks and greys. Some of these phrases are not familiar, but they know for sure about the existence of salaries “in envelopes”. Such a color division of salaries has entered our lives for quite a long time. Therefore, I want to be well versed in such schemes in order to understand what works and how.

General characteristics

White salary is the one that is officially paid. It is necessary to understand in more detail which components are included in it, and then touch on issues related to unofficial payments. Such an unusual name has nothing to do with the color of banknotes or coins, it was given to the salary due to the fact that it passes, as expected, according to all documents, is official until the very last coin. List of documents in which it is reflected:

- Pay Regulations;

- employment contract;

- job order;

- other official documents.

While receiving a white salary fromthe employee has the opportunity to track exactly how all accruals, allowances and deductions were made.

Legislative foundations

It should be noted that the laws do not contain a word about white, gray or black wages. The employer establishes an officially defined wage, which must be agreed with the trade union of the enterprise and spelled out in the documentation relating to the internal activities of the firm, company or organization. The order in which wages will be paid, as well as the form and timing of payments at the enterprise is usually established by the employer itself, as regulated by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. The employer must meet only two conditions:

- he is not en titled to pay wages less than the minimum wage;

- the frequency of salary payments should be once every half a month.

It should be noted that the official salary represents the income of an individual. The tax code of the Russian Federation requires that the amount of income tax, which is 13-30%, must be deducted from it. Only after this payment is withdrawn from wages are all other deductions taken.

Composition of official wages

Depending on what form of remuneration is practiced at the enterprise, either for a specific position or profession, funds are accrued to pay the employee. Wage can take one of two forms: time or piecework.

Time billing

So you canconsider the case when the enterprise works with a time wage system. In this case, the white salary is made up of the salary set for a particular employee, bonuses. The salary is paid in full if the time rate calculated for the employee is fully worked out. The bonus can be calculated as a percentage of salary or in the form of a fixed value. In each case, it all depends on the employer. The time sheet is used as the main document for this form of mutual settlements.

Piecework

In this case, payroll is calculated in accordance with the norms that have been developed by the employee, this may be the provision of a service or a unit of a product. Naturally, such a form of remuneration can be used where the amount of work performed can be estimated in units or pieces. This principle can also be applied to the payment of a bonus, that is, to take into account whether the norm was fulfilled, whether there was a marriage, whether any special indicators were achieved during work, and others.

Wage composition

Usually, salaries of employees consist of several items:

- salary - takes into account the time that the employee actually worked, or the norm that he fulfilled in the production of products;

- premium;

- district coefficient, if used;

- allowance given for seniority, academic degree, honorary title and others. Very often, artists and teachers receive various allowances;

- holiday pay ifemployee goes on vacation;

- payment in accordance with the sick leave - during the billing period, the employee must be on a sick leave and have time to take a closed sick leave to make accruals.

The organization may well have some other payments.

Payout procedure

If a white salary is used, that is, it is accrued and paid, then the accounting department of the enterprise subtracts all required deductions, including income tax, takes into account bonuses received by the employee, benefits, additional payments, and also properly completes the necessary documentation. The employee can see all accruals and deductions for each item on the payslip.

The management of the enterprise sets the terms of payments, while their frequency should be at least once every half a month. Managers choose the form of payment, it can be accruals through the cash desk of the enterprise or a transfer to a bank card used by an employee. Salary in an envelope is not carried out in such ways, but is issued to the employee personally.

In the event that non-payment of wages is 15 days or more, recipients of payment have the right, which is confirmed by law, to temporarily not perform their work duties, not to visit their workplace until the full payment of the due part of wages. In this case, the employer is obliged to pay for downtime as well.

The employee has the right to quit of his own free will if there is a fact of salary delaysfees. At the same time, the head is obliged not only to sign the application, but also to pay in full with the employee on the day of his dismissal. Salary in an envelope does not provide such opportunities. However, this list of rights is not given to all categories of workers. Law enforcement officers and civil servants cannot apply such measures to an employer who withholds wages, in accordance with the law. All other categories can.

Unofficial salary

It is already clear that the official payment is called white, and the unofficial one can be considered gray or black. It is customary to refer to this type such forms of remuneration of workers that do not pass through the documentation of the enterprise in whole or in part. Employees are often given wages in envelopes. Responsibility for this will ultimately be borne by both parties, since both are violators of the laws. Cash in a white tight envelope is hidden from prying eyes, so all transactions are unofficial.

It is necessary to figure out what a salary is in an envelope, what is included in it, how it is paid and how it exists.

What is a gray salary?

This phenomenon can be seen in a rather eloquent example. Imagine that an employee got a job at a certain enterprise for some very insignificant position, which has a very small salary. The salary of this employee, as well as his functions, as a result, do not at all correspond to those stated in the documentation. For this discrepancy in the work performed, the employer pays him a monthly supplement toofficial salary, which is drawn up in accordance with all the rules, a certain amount (its size depends on the situation), without a statement or any other records, directly into the hands, that is, in cash. In this case, we are talking about the same "gray" salary.

This option is often practiced by employers in order to reduce tax payments. There are situations when an enterprise urgently needs a specialist with a well-defined qualification, but there is no position for him in the staff list. It is quite difficult to urgently introduce the required position, and sometimes it is completely impossible. In this case, a “grey” salary is the only option. An employee is registered for any vacant position, and he performs exactly the functions that are expected of him. The salary and taxes in this case will be very different from those that should actually be, since he receives the missing part of the payments in the “envelope”.

Gray salary dividend scheme

There is also such a scheme for paying gray wages. Each employee of the enterprise has the opportunity to acquire a certain part or several shares of the company, which he is obliged to sell to the enterprise in case of dismissal. All this is written in the employment contract. The official average salary of an employee, which quite often turns out to be the minimum, goes to him on the card or he receives it at the cash desk, and most of the money is given to him in the form of dividends. As a result of this, a gray salary is obtained, whichhiding under good cover.

Tax authorities usually check all documents of shareholder meetings, in addition, the content of employment contracts, the shares of each and the frequency of payments made at the enterprise. Dividends are traditionally paid not every month, but once a quarter. In addition, very often in the decisions of meetings of joint-stock companies you can find a lot of inaccuracies and errors that help in identifying the fact of paying gray wages, make it possible to convict employers of illegal actions.

What is the advantage of gray wages?

As a result of the use of such schemes, people's salaries become gray, which is beneficial not only to the employer himself, but also to the staff who receive them. And there are quite a few reasons for this. Reducing the tax burden benefits both parties:

- the amount of income tax deducted from the salary is reduced, which is associated with the taxation of a smaller part of the salary;

- the amount of alimony paid is also reduced, since only the size of the official salary is used for calculation. The withholding portion usually does not exceed 20% of the total earnings.

Everything suggests that black and white wages are two sides of our current situation. Most employers find a balance between the two by shifting to gray wages.

The essence of black wages

Employers often try so hard to reduce tax payments that they hire employees without their officialdesign. At the same time, there is no need to conclude an employment contract, make entries in the work book, even if it is at the enterprise at the request of the management. In this case, wages are paid exclusively in envelopes. The amount of payments can vary from minimal to quite high. For example, the minimum wage in Moscow is now 15,000 rubles.

Performance of such financial transactions requires certain efforts from the employer in the form of double-entry bookkeeping: unrecorded revenue goes into the black salary. This option is considered convenient for entrepreneurs who deal with the sale of goods, transportation, that is, such business areas in which there is a constant cash flow. In the future, she goes to pay salaries in envelopes.

This scheme also works in real estate offices. Only a few real estate agents can be officially registered, and the remaining eight or nine work without any registration and receive interest from the transaction. This salary is just black.

Another option could be the following: when a shell company opens, which closes immediately after making black payments, and the employer, it turns out, legally transferred money for the payment.

What is the danger of informal wages?

There are cases when, for example, a documented worker is paid the minimum wage in Moscow, and he agrees to accept the rest in an envelope.

In this case, he risks losinga range of payouts, including:

- social and holiday payments;

- pension accrued in accordance with official contributions to the Pension Fund;

- other payments that are guaranteed by labor legislation with a salary received officially.

And for workers who receive full black wages, the risk will be even greater. Such a person cannot count on a whole range of payments, including sick leave, vacation, maternity and others. And if the employer, for some reason, decides to dismiss an employee, then he can do this without paying him a severance pay, as well as wages for the period already worked. Or simply stop paying your employees money at any time. For an employer who practices the payment of salaries in envelopes, it is not scary that in the event of a dispute, employees will go to court. This is not only useless, but sometimes dangerous.

How are black wage payments disclosed?

It is quite easy for tax officials to detect the presence of unregistered employees at the enterprise. To do this, you need to calculate the number of employees in the workplace, and then compare the result with the official staffing figures. It is clear that no one will work without pay, so we can draw conclusions about the existence of the fact of paying black wages. To confirm this with documents, it is enough to come with an inspection without warning, and make a seizure at the enterprise of documentation and files managed by the accounting department. In this case, the salary will bepalms, so it will be possible to find out all the circumstances as detailed as possible.

Probability in court

If wages are paid in black, then this is a serious offense. In the event that there are any disagreements between the employer and the employee, the latter believes that it is useless for him to go to court, since he will not be able to prove anything without official documents. However, even with such a payroll scheme, it is difficult to prove, but possible. Recordings on a dictaphone, announcements in the newspaper by the employer, testimonies of other employees, etc. can be used as evidence.

Problems due to gray wages

The most important disadvantage of this method of mutual settlements for the employee is that he will not receive in full those payments that are guaranteed by the state, or will be left without money at all if, for some reason, the employer stops paying wages in an envelope. It doesn't matter what the average salary was. An employee who receives an unofficial salary is automatically subject to criminal liability as a tax evader. This is especially true for significant amounts of non-payment.

For all of the above reasons, if you choose whether you are more interested in a white salary, or gray or black, think carefully about all the consequences of such a decision.