Types Of Activities To Be Banned For Individual Entrepreneurs In Belarus Revealed

The bill has already been adopted by the “chamber guys” in the first reading.

A draft bill on changes for individual entrepreneurs has appeared on the Internet. It contains a list of activities that individual entrepreneurs will be able to engage in in the future. Those entrepreneurs whose activities do not fall into the final list will be forced to either close or open a legal entity, reports zerkalo.io.

Briefly about what changes the officials want to introduce

The officials want to cut the list of activities for individual entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs whose activities do not fall into the shortened list will be forced to either close or register a legal entity. So, individual entrepreneurs may be prohibited from engaging in wholesale trade and providing tourist services.

They also want to introduce changes for individuals. The officials intend to edit the Civil Code and reduce the list of activities that are not considered entrepreneurship. They want to remove from it, for example, handicrafts, agro-ecotourism, as well as self-employment of the people who sell their own pastries and honey, grown vegetables, and painted pictures in the markets. “Any activity of an individual will a priori be recognized as entrepreneurial,” the Ministry of Taxes and Duties previously stated regarding the bill.

The bill has already been adopted by the “deputies” in the first reading, ahead is the second.

What types of activities can remain for individual entrepreneurs, and which ones can not

A draft bill with a list of activities that individual entrepreneurs are expected to continue to engage in appeared on the Internet, it has been published also by lawyers and tax consultants. It remains unknown how relevant this version of the draft is. Most likely, this is one of the last options that officials decided to share with business unions and other interested parties.

It follows from this draft that the list of activities that individual entrepreneurs can engage in did not include legal services, wholesale trade, and courier activities. Earlier it was reported that individual entrepreneurs may be banned from engaging in wholesale trade and providing tourism services.

As for such a field of activity as “information and communication”, they want to leave computer programming, consulting and other related services out of it. Regarding education, it is proposed to leave only “education in the field of physical culture, sports and recreation”.

Retail trade remains on the list (except for trade in cars and motorcycles).

The draft amendments predict that the number of individual entrepreneurs after the revision of activities may be reduced from 263 thousand (at the beginning of this year) to 143.5 thousand. At the same time, the number of employees they have may decrease from 64.6 to 47.1 thousand people.