The Institution of Self-employment as a Factor of Small Business Development in Russia

In the context of the spread of self-employment as an alternative to employment, the state faces the task of institutionalising self-employed activities. The creation of norms and rules that ensure its legalisation allows employees to use all the advantages of official employment, including small businesses, and to the state allows for the replenishment of the budget's revenue side. This is why an experiment is being conducted the introduction of a special tax regime, "Professional Income Tax" (PIT), minimises the self-employed's tax expenses and allows them to receive additional support from the state in case of their official registration. The analysis of the dynamics of the number of registered selfemployed applying the PIT and the receipts of payments for this tax over three years allows us to conclude about the positive results of the experiment. This is the basis for the formation of the institution of the self-employed as a fullfledged subject of SMEs. Along with this, there are unresolved controversial issues on the implementation of the experiment that require additional consideration.