Job Discussion Forums

[jpvanderwerf2001]

I've heard through the grapevine that a crackdown on private tutors is taking place. From my information, those who are teaching privately are required to register with the tax authorities and pay taxes accordingly.
Anyone?

[Kootvela]

[jpvanderwerf2001]

Yes, I've heard that tax inspectors will be paying more visits to people they suspect are tutoring illegally. My guess is this constitutes a good percentage of those teaching English in Russia. For me, personally, this isn't such a big deal; however, I do know quite a few teachers who make most of their monthly coin under the table.
My question is: Is this a new "crackdown"? Or has this been ongoing and I simply didn't know anything about it?

[Kootvela]

[maruss]

Everyone knows that people breaking the law in Russia is part of daily routine(even their new president already said that dealing with it is one of his top priorities!)There are so many thousands of laws that it would be impossible to obey them all so the question is which ones can you risk breaking and at what cost,usually financial!'Moonlighting' is a common practice in many other countries too, but as the visa rules in Russia have now been tightened-up it is much more difficult for foreigners to stay there and do any kind of work for more than 90 days at a time,not forgetting that you then have to leave for a minimum of 90 days before you can go back again!Of course if you do manage to get a residency visa and work permit etc. then you could still theoritically still do extra private work'on the side' and whether you are caught by the tax people would depend on many factors,luck being one of them!

[BELS]

First of all, it always has been illegal to teach privately without informing the tax authority. It's illegal to work at all, period.Unless you hvae the right to work in the first. With a business or personal visa you have no right to work.

Now if you are talking about teachers who have a legal work contract from a legal licensed school, you still have no right to work apart from with your employer. However I can't see that stopping any teacher from doing a bit of private work on the side to boost up their measly income.

It didn't stop them in the past, and I can't imagine that they will stop doing it now or in the future.

[BELS]

As a fulltime private teacher, you must have at least temporary residency here, and then you must register at the local tax office as an entrepeneur.
Yu will get your personal stamp for stamping receipt and invoices to corporate companies, or to schools of whom you are charging for your freelance teaching services.

To tell you the truth, freelancing is also illegal for most teachers, but for the moment it doesn't stop even the most reputable schools doing it on a cash basis. The problem is that if caught, that scool will be fined much more than you as a teacher, and their license might be taken away from them.

[BELS]

[maruss]

You will not find a better informed ex-pat teacher in Russia and beng married to a Russian he is a resident and therefore knows about regulations etc.
What he has just written was told to me a couple of years by the director of a certain school in northern Moscow whose name suggests nice weather and whose location suggests travel!(Old hands in Moscow will have no trouble working out which place I am talking about!)

[Kootvela]

[BELS]

[Kootvela]

I typically have 1 to 1 lessons. For 1,5 h(2 academic h) I charge 60 lt. This makes about 24 USD per lesson. Surely, market value is different and we can buy different quantities for that amount depending on the country. To get back to rates, illegally working tutors charge about 40lt per lesson, that makes about 16 USD.

[BELS]

[BELS]

[Kootvela]

In Vilnius, this is very good money for 1-to-1 lessons. The boundary between what is affordable and what is reasonable. From autumn I will increase it to 65 litas because of inflation and other related costs.