An employee has the right to leave and sick leave. The employer provides the right to the employee. Does the self-employed individual − unified tax payer have this right? Actually, yes, he/she does. But it can be used only under certain conditions.
Entrepreneurs of the 1st and the 2nd groups, but only those who do not have employees, are exempt from payment of the unified tax within the leave during one calendar month in a year (para. 295.5 of the Tax Code of Ukraine, hereinafter – TCU).
In order to use this right, it is necessary to submit the application in any form indicating the leave period therein (sub-para. 298.3.2 of TCU). It is required to indicate a whole month (from the first to the last day of the month), because the unified tax is not to be paid during this period. Tax authorities advise to submit the application at the beginning of the calendar month of the leave, in order not to violate the terms of payment of the advance payments (subcategory 107.12в ZIR).
Also, if the unified tax payer took sick, he/she also gets exemption from the unified tax payment, but only if the disease lasts for 30 or more calendar days.
The application together with a copy of the sick leave certificate should be submitted in any form to the tax agency after the end of the sick leave.
In the period of the disease (30 days or more) one or several sick leave certificates should be issued, but there should not be an interval between them and they should be issued per one insurance event.
Another important warning is a mandatory lack of business activities in the month of the leave or the sick leave. That is, if there are facts of execution of works or services, confirmed by documents, then the tax authorities can consider the exemption from the unified tax payment as illegal. It does not concern cases when in this period the unified tax payer received prepayment or payment for services previously provided.
It should be note, if the advance payment has been already paid in advance, it is required to submit another one application to the tax authorities (or it should be indicated in a leave or sick leave request) for crediting of the unified tax in future payments (para. 295.6 of TCU).
As for the unified tax payers of the third group, they are not exempt from the unified tax payment for the period of leave or sick leave, because they pay the tax in percentage of income for the reporting period but not in a fixed amount. Therefore, if the entrepreneur is on leave or sick, and does not conduct business activity, so, he/she does not have an income and, accordingly, does not have the subject to the unified tax.
At the same time, the unified tax payer is not exempted from payment of the unified social contribution. It should be paid whether the income has been received or not.
