1) What are the main legal risks for companies arising from misclassification of self-employed individuals and independent contractors?
Incorrect qualification of legal relations (substitution of employment relationships with civil-law contracts) may lead to reclassification as actual employment relationships, which entails violations of labor and tax law.
Violation of tax law will be considered as a form of conducting a business transaction not justified by economic or other reasons (subparagraph 5, paragraph 2 of the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus No. 465 dated 15.07.2022 “On the peculiarities of evaluating certain business transactions”).
This may result in administrative or criminal liability for non-payment of personal income tax and social contributions, as well as the accrual of penalties on the unpaid amounts.
