The low salary for gas station workers is an indicator of the presence of large-scale schemes in the network, Sergei Kuyun said.
The difference in the salary of employees of different gas station chains is three to four times. It indicates the “optimization” of payroll taxes, as well as possible methods to avoid income tax and VAT. The director of A-95 Consulting Group, Sergei Kuyun, wrote about this on Facebook on Tuesday, January 16.
He refers to the data on the payment of personal income tax (NDFL) in gas station networks for the third quarter of 2023.
“The average value for five rating leaders gives an idea of the real salary of gas station chain workers – it is about 22 thousand UAH with personal income tax, or 18 thousand UAH “in hand” per month . I believe this is a fairly realistic indicator,” said Kuyun.
He drew attention to the fact that the difference between leaders and outsiders in the “salary” rating is three to four times.
“How in an industry, in similar stations, which sometimes stand next to each other, can the salaries of the staff differ three times?” – noted the expert.
According to Kuyun, most gas station networks, including players from the top ten market leaders in terms of sales volumes – BRSM, Avantage 7 and KLO, officially pay employees 5 -7 thousand hryvnias per month. In his opinion, this may indicate the practice of paying salaries in envelopes.
Kuyun added that this could also indicate the operation of larger tax evasion schemes in networks with low salaries for workers, as the difference between the official and real salary must be paid in cash.
“Where does the money usually come from? “Twisting” with the help of “tax pits”, trading without issuing a cash receipt or manipulating checks, etc. That is, a low salary is an indicator of having larger schemes in the network, which reduces the indicators, both profit and VAT,” he said.
The expert of the State Tax Service called to pay particular attention to salary taxes, because, unlike incomes and VAT, whose fuel networks are capable of manipulation, it is difficult to constantly change salaries .
“At the very least, it’s difficult to explain to employees, and it’s hundreds and thousands of people,” the expert stressed.
According to the calculations of A-95 Consulting Group, setting real wages in gas station networks will release more than 2 billion UAH of personal income tax and single social contribution (USC) per year.
Let’s remember that, according to A-95 Consulting Group, most large gas station chains hide income to avoid paying taxes.
Source: korrespondent
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