Published 2 May 2018. Some rules have changed since; ask us for the current position.
A lawyer practising independently
A lawyer's work counts as independent when it consists of providing defence or other types of legal assistance to a client. This is stated in Article 1 of Law of Ukraine No. 5076-VI of 5 July 2012 "On the Bar and Practice of Law" (Про адвокатуру та адвокатську діяльність).
Paragraph 3 of Article 4 of the same law gives a lawyer the right to:
- practise individually;
- work in a law bureau with its own rules;
- work in a lawyers' association.
When a lawyer starts practising, they must be entered in the Unified Register of Lawyers of Ukraine (ЄРАУ, Єдиний реєстр адвокатів України) straight away. All changes to the register are made by the Council of Lawyers of Ukraine.
So any lawyer, even one practising individually, first has to register with the supervisory authorities and take on the role of a payer within the Ukrainian social insurance system.
Put simply, the lawyer pays the mandatory single social contribution (ЄСВ, єдиний соціальний внесок).
How the single social contribution is paid
The single social contribution is paid by people engaged in independent professional activity. This is confirmed by item 5 of part one of Article 4 of Law of Ukraine No. 2464-VI of 8 July 2010 "On the Collection and Accounting of the Single Contribution to Mandatory State Social Insurance" (Про збір та облік єдиного внеску на загальнообов'язкове державне соціальне страхування).
For lawyers, the contribution base is the income they receive from their professional activity, which is taxed as the income of an individual. In any case, the contribution must be equal to or higher than the minimum insurance contribution for one month.
A payer may receive no income in a given quarter or month. In that case, they should promptly decide what their contribution base will be. Whatever they choose must not exceed the maximum base for the single contribution. In this situation, the contribution may be lower than the minimum insurance contribution.
Under Law No. 2464, both employers and people engaged in independent professional activity are payers of the single social contribution. It follows that a person who works under an employment agreement and also practises independently still has to pay the single social contribution for themselves, provided they are registered as a person carrying out independent activity.
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