Way to Russia Community and Forum

BELS · Lounge Lizard Joined: 30 Mar 2005 Posts: 117

I would apprecate the experience of any freelance or self employed teachers in Moscow. How does one become a self employed teacher, without depending on the invitation of a language school.

wavetossed · WayToRussified Joined: 27 Jun 2004 Posts: 339

Get a one year multi-entry business visa, go there, and do it.

You will probably be breaking some administrative laws, but let's face it, you will be a small business doing something good for the Russian economy so you aren't likely to be hassled. But make sure you spend some time with other expats in Russia so that you can learn the ins and outs of Moscow.

http://www.exile.ru http://www.mosnews.ru

BELS · Lounge Lizard Joined: 30 Mar 2005 Posts: 117

I have been in russia since August 2004, I have just returned to England to renew my visa. I got married to a Russian Lady on December 29th 2004. We both want to settle in Moscow and be self employed teachers legally. No problem with students, renting of classes etc. Demand is high. The difficulty is how to do it legally. In a quick cheap simple way, yes I know about residential visa, but what can I do while I am waiting for a residential visa, that can take six months or more. We live in the Gorki region of Moscow, I havent met other Expats.

cyndy22 · Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 4:44 am Post subject:

I want to know more about you Wavetossed.

First how did you get that name? I do not at all want to be disrespectful but have you EVER been a surfer? Smile

Seondly where are you located and what is your present and past history to Russia?

Mark · Frequent Guest Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 53

Im a teacher here myself,work for an american school.
Russians dont really see teaching as a proper job.
Cash in hand is your best bet...

BELS · Lounge Lizard Joined: 30 Mar 2005 Posts: 117

Precisely, I dont want to work for a school either, the income is peanuts. But I do the demand for students wanting to learn English is high, and on a self employed basis the income is much higher, I sometimes wonder why the the schools are so greedy, So please, how does one become self employed legally in Moscow

aquasplash · Just Starting Joined: 31 Mar 2005 Posts: 1

can a self-employed EFL teacher make a decent living in Russia? I am not talking about being wealthy, but simply comfortable. Is it difficult to set up your own EFL teaching facility and find students? What type of facility would it require?

BELS · Lounge Lizard Joined: 30 Mar 2005 Posts: 117

Yes I beleive you can, finding students? renting classrooms? etc that the easy part, and you can probably get them in the community, no need to travel all over the place. However how do you arrange your own invitations to work for yourself in Moscow. Or how do you get a work visa, when you are your own employer.

Small amounts of info I have received is you have to be a legal entity, a company, and a non commercial company is the most suited for an EFL school. Theres is a lot more to it apparently, getting liscensed, and contacting immigration authorities on getting permission for foreign teachers to work. Perhaps other EFLs have thought of this, perhaps we can group together, and share the costs of forming a company, and then we can all invite ourselve to Moscow to work as self employed teachers legally. Think , no more dependence of a language school

wavetossed · WayToRussified Joined: 27 Jun 2004 Posts: 339

In Russia, it seems that the most important thing to do, in order to be legal, is pay your taxes.

If you have an English-teaching business in another country, then I can't see why you couldn't legally teach in Russia on a business visa.

But here's an idea! You have a legal question, right? About Russian law, right? There are lawyers in Russia, right?

Why are you asking us such silly questions?

BELS · Lounge Lizard Joined: 30 Mar 2005 Posts: 117

This silly question was asked in this website WAYTORUSSIA, on the subject of workvisas, it stated that how to get a work visa, was by arranging it from your prospective employer, However they had two questions , which they stated, one was but what do employees do if they are dissatisfied and dont want to continue to work with their current employer?, and what does a person do if he wants to be self employed?. THe site was updated today so I cant paste the area to you. however the update has now covered some of the information I was looking for. It was the site that led me to here, to ask further questions that were missing. Thats how I got here to ask the silly question.

BELS · Lounge Lizard Joined: 30 Mar 2005 Posts: 117

OK , it took me a long time, to find out simple information about legally being self employed in Moscow. So here it is, for the benefit of others who want to be self employed in Russia. answered in simple English ,the way I like to hear it.

QUOTE:
By Ben Hooson
Special to The Moscow Times

Foreigners who are based in Moscow and working for themselves are free to set up a business here. In fact, they are obliged to do so.

"In the U.S. you can do what you want so long as you pay the tax, but anyone who engages in business activity here as an individual without registering the business is liable to prosecution, even if he pays personal income tax on his gains," said Valery Toutykhin, partner at Moscow legal firm John Tiner & Russian Partners.

The rule has some justification in a country where the personal income tax rate is only just over half the corporate income tax rate (13 percent and 24 percent respectively), compared with rough equality of the two rates in most Western countries.

Small businessmen can pay even less than 24 percent, offering one good reason for foreign lone operators who work in Russia to be based here. New rules, introduced in 2002 and 2003, allow businesses with fewer than 50 employees and an annual turnover of less than $500,000 to use a lightened and simplified tax regime, paying either 6 percent of turnover or 15 percent of profit instead of the 24 percent of profit tax rate applicable to bigger companies. The regime also gives exemption from a number of other taxes and duties, including value-added tax.

The Internet and the Russian financial press are full of legal firms that will help anyone set up their own business in Russia for a fee, and some of them are geared to foreigners. The visa issue is not a big problem.

"A foreigner gets a business visa to Russia based on an invitation from a Russian organization, and then sets up a business and applies for a visa that gives him the right to work here. That will be a 12-month visa, which can be renewed without leaving the country," said Timur Beslangurov, the managing director of Vista Foreign Business Support.

According to Beslangurov, the most popular form of organization for foreigners setting up alone is an "OOO," which is not a cry of alarm, but the Russian version of "LLC," or limited liability company. This is a company with no shares, which makes it simpler to create and operate. The official start-up costs are a minimum charter capital of 10,000 rubles ($330), and a registration fee of 2000 rubles ($66).

Setting up an OOO requires a two-week paper chase between the tax office, registration chamber and various other state agencies; but legal firms will do it all for a fee that varies from $400 to $8000 depending whether you want the minimum or a tailor-made solution. Necessary documents are a passport with visa and permission to work in Russia, issued by your country's embassy in Russia. You also need a legal address (owned or rented owned office space), but the lawyers can fix that without any genuine renting taking place.

There is another legal status, the exotic-sounding PBOYuL, which seems even better suited to a sole proprietor. The acronym stands for "entrepreneur without creation of a legal person," and it has had a colorful history. Status as a Russian PBOYuL was once the best option for the ex-Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and for international corporate expats in the top income bracket. It is still the best option for car mechanics and hairdressers working from home.

Setting up as a PBOYuL is cheaper than registering an OOO. No company means no charter capital, which saves $330, and the lawyer's fee for doing the paper work is about $250. But the status has attraction for people who deal in much larger sums.

Billed as Russia's richest man, Khodorkovsky is now being taken to task by Russian prosecutors for a 1998-99 scheme, in which he was paid millions of dollars as a PBOYuL by offshore shell companies for vague consulting services. The allegation is that he was really being paid for his work as head of Yukos and its affiliates.

Khodorkovsky's trick was to set up as a PBOYuL and opt for the "imputed tax" system, by which PBOYuLs paid no income tax, but instead paid a fixed sum of a few thousand rubles ($100-$200) per year to buy a "patent" that allowed them to practice a specific profession as a PBOYuL. Lawmakers had wanted to make life easier for the small-earning car mechanic and home-based hairdresser, whose casual cash earnings are untraceable anyway, but the plan got hijacked.

"The imputed tax system was meant for simple services, but we could draft a law that made it applicable for much more professional jobs and get the law passed in some region far from Moscow, where a top executive would then register as PBOYuL - a lot of international companies did it to legally optimize tax and salaries of their highest-paid people," said Valery Toutykhin, partner at Moscow law firm John Tiner & Partners.

Toutykhin said that high net worth individuals who had nothing to do with Russia also used the loophole, making themselves tax resident as PBOYuLs in the country. "The Russians don't care who registers as tax resident here," Toutykhin said.

The dodge was closed down last year, when a strict list of business activities that can be given PBOYuL status was inserted into the Tax Code. The system for calculating the fixed sum of imputed tax was also overhauled. PBOYuLs now have a choice of paying imputed tax, if their profession allows it, or using the same privileged tax rates, which are available to OOOs -- either 6 percent of turnover, or 15 percent of turnover minus costs.

Beslangurov said that foreigners doing bona fide business in Moscow as lone operators opt for OOO and not for PBOYuL status. That is partly because a PBOYuL is personally liable if his business runs up debts or fines, while the owner of an OOO is only liable to the extent of company capital. But there is also an image aspect.

"Being a company is perceived as more respectable than being a sole trader," said Beslangurov, "If you are an OOO, you could be employing up to 50 people for all the customers know."

"The Moscow Times", Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2003.

Mark · Frequent Guest Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 53

I agree with you Bels,working for yourself is much better then for some school,iv'e been thinking of working for myself for sometime.Just kind of teaching in my local area,like you say demand is very high....
There's a school near by where i live i'll be popping over to see about renting a room.Do you know how much they charge?

Working with a school as helped me get my feet in the front door ,soon it will be time to walk alone in the teaching world ...
Crazy money can be made just for being a native...
How i love this country.. Cool

BELS · Lounge Lizard Joined: 30 Mar 2005 Posts: 117

Yes I totally agree with , concentrate in the community you live in , keep your students beside you , hopefully five minutes walk between each student , if its one to one.Yes keep your travelling and time costs to a minimum, as they say time costs money.

Classes, well thats negotations with the head of the school, and I am sure you know about Russians and negotiations. My wife got an offer from a private Art teacher, why don’t you share my classroom, $270 a month. She said no, because it would take some time for her to develop the classes of students. “ ok, how about I get you the students, some of them from my classes“.” I will give you time to develop the classes and then you can pay me $270 per month“. Ok, deal accepted, my wife now has two classes of seven and I believe enquiries will increase. Just 5 year olds for the time being, but the other age groups will come along I am sure.

Our headmistress, controls the bigger secondary school, we have been invited to go to different parent’s meetings of for different age groups, I was impressed with my wife giving a good speech , going through the different courses , and preparation for qualifications we had to offer, such as PET. Prices will be $7.50 an hour, based on 10 in a class, if for any reason the classes are smaller then adjustments may be made to the price. I had to make a speech myself, , alongside my wife who did the translation.

Bookings for courses are trickling in every week from the secondary school, courses will start in September, hopefully we should have a number of classes of different age groups by then. With a bit of luck I might also have my Residential visa . After the visa I will be able to register as a Proprietor or sole Trader. I have to be honest, I couldn’t have done any of this in Moscow without my wife.

Payment of rent to school for September?, well no mention of that yet, all she has asked for is teaching her son English, which I do free of charge, She has mentioned that she would like her classes decorated. My wife suspects she is waiting for our success. Teaching her son is paying off with the amount of recommendations she is giving us.

Mark · Frequent Guest Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 53

Seems you have it all set up.
I'm hearing loads from fellow teachers on how things are run over here..
There's some bad school who are just in it for the money..
I'll be concentraiting on my local area like you say..
If you don't mind me asking are you an american or british???
Thanks for the info on the classes.Very useful...

BELS · Lounge Lizard Joined: 30 Mar 2005 Posts: 117

British and proud of it, I dont like Russians mixing me up with american.

And I love Russia, apart from its red tape now and again

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We are currently moving the old forum to Facebook, so what you see below functions as an archive. If you have a question, please, post it on Way to Russia Facebook Discussions Page

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If you have a question or want to help someone, please, go to
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We also invite you to join our Facebook community, where you can meet other travelers and read interesting news on topics ranging from visa regulations to culture and music.

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If you have a question, please, post it on
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