On September 30, 2013, the "Green Lamp" press club held a press conference devoted to the situation on the translation-services market in the wake of legislative amendments in the sphere of individual entrepreneurship.
The event was associated with International Translator's Day, celebrated on September 30. The experts discussed innovations in the sphere of individual entrepreneurship, changes to insurance contributions since January 1, 2014, the training of specialists, and cooperation between the Public Council for Small Business Development at the Office of the Governor of St. Petersburg and the Union of Translators of Russia, as well as the recognition of Translation Day as an official public holiday.
Much attention during the press conference was paid to the training of specialists – in particular, to the lack of readiness for the practical application of knowledge: "The main problem is that the people arriving on the market are not ready for it, they do not know what to do. If someone manages to get a full-time job as a translator or interpreter – that's good. But no proper system exists for preparing people to work in the market. Just imagine: 160 universities graduate a lot of people, and these people are abandoned in this world. They are abandoned since they do not know how to further cooperate with customers: how to find them, how to establish legal relations," says Ilya Mischenko, Chairman of the St. Petersburg Division of the Union of Translators of Russia, Director of the Centre for Translation and Localisation at EGO Translating Company. "At the same time, there is another issue: the people graduating from universities are not only unprepared from the legal point of view, but they also need some time to work for a customer, for a translation company, for a direct customer to start working as a truly-qualified translator. Unfortunately, the university program is more theoretical. Practical translation courses are taught by professors who are not practicing translators themselves, i.e. the teacher teaches a teacher." There are several solutions to this problem, in the opinion of EGO Translating Company representatives:
• addition of a "Job Introduction" course at educational institutions;
• meetings with practicing translators or interpreters, involvement of practitioners in training;
• more hours of native language training for translation majors.
Oksana Khairulina, Director of the Resources Department, EGO Translating Company, discussed the methods used to select a project group, the various issues noted during the testing of experts, and the requirements imposed by customers on providers.
Without doubt, the experts did not shy away from the problems of specialists who have been practicing for a while – particularly those working as sole proprietors and deciding to "fade into the shadows" following amendments to the law. As you may recall, according to the statistics of the Federal Tax Service, since the beginning of 2013, the number of sole proprietors closing their business has reached 531,900. Many of them mention higher contributions as one of the reasons.
Pavel S. Bruk, member of the Management Board of the Union of Translators of Russia, explained his decision to cancel his sole proprietor status not only by higher contributions, but also by intense document circulation, which takes lots of time and effort from a translator, especially an elderly one. He noted that this was also true for representatives of other economic sectors.
The disadvantages mentioned by Pavel S. Bruk were commented on by Olga A. Golosova, General Director of the law firm Veronika: "There has been some progress – not a lot, but step-by-step we are still moving forward. All bureaucratic procedures are being simplified to the maximum, starting with registration. The government has already developed multiple options, including electronic registration, as well as benefits under the independent submission of documents for registration by the sole proprietor himself. You don't have to provide notarial certification, there is a separate queue for you at the tax inspectorate with fewer people in it, and the set of documents is minimal. Moreover, the "single window" principle is in effect.”
Olga A. Golosova also mentioned some advantages of working on the basis of the simplified taxation system:
• sole proprietors are not obliged to keep accounting records – only tax records of income and expenses;
• declarations are submitted once a year following the results of the year, whereas several years ago, you had to submit it every quarter;
• the tax amount of 6%, which is paid on a quarterly basis, may be reduced by the value of the person’s pension contribution.
It is also worth noting that from the beginning of 2014, contributions to the Pension Fund will also change, amounting to approximately RUB 20,000 – payable by all businessmen, regardless of their income.
The issue of recognising Translation Day as an official public holiday, which was raised before, was also discussed at the press conference, and everyone expressed the hope that it would soon be approved by the Governor of St. Petersburg. As a reminder, one can sign the petition to support the holiday at the following address: https://mypetition.ru/petition/360. A video recording of the conference is available at the official website of the "Green Club" press club.
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