Monthly payroll, NDFL and contributions — run properly, reported in English.
Russian payroll is not complicated, but it is specific: twice-monthly payment cycles, a 30% employer burden, and penalties that start the day a payment is late. We run the monthly cycle, handle NDFL and contributions, keep the HQS regime working in your favour, and report it back to head office in a form they can read.
The salary you offer is not what you pay, and it is not what your employee receives. For every ₽100,000 of gross salary, the company's cost is roughly ₽130,000 — the salary plus around 30% in employer social contributions — and the employee takes home about ₽87,000 after personal income tax. Three different numbers for one salary, and head offices routinely budget against the wrong one. Russian payroll is not complicated. It is specific, and the specifics are where it goes wrong.
Employer social contributions run at roughly 30% of gross salary, paid to the Social Fund of Russia — the SFR, formed in 2023 by merging the Pension Fund and the Social Insurance Fund. This is the employer's cost on top of salary, not a deduction from it. Personal income tax is separate: 13% for residents, 15% above an annual threshold and up to 22% under the progressive scale, withheld from the employee's pay.
Small and medium enterprises on the SME register pay 15% rather than 30% on the portion of each employee's monthly salary above one federal minimum wage — ₽27,093 a month. Applied per employee per month, it changes the arithmetic materially for a team.
Accredited IT companies qualify for reduced contribution tariffs. For a team of developers this is not a rounding difference, and it is worth confirming accreditation before modelling headcount.
Non-resident employees without HQS status pay 30% NDFL until the 183-day residency threshold is met. EAEU nationals pay 13% from day one under the treaty.
Highly Qualified Specialists — ВКС — are exempt from Russian social contributions entirely, and pay 13% NDFL from their first day regardless of residency. That combination removes roughly 30% from the cost of employing a foreign specialist and eliminates the 30% non-resident tax rate at the same time. It is the most tax-efficient way to employ foreign nationals in Russia, and it is not obscure — it is simply a regime that has to be applied for, maintained and evidenced.
The condition is a minimum salary of ₽750,000 per quarter, moving to ₽717,000 per month from 1 March 2027. If your specialist's salary sits near it, the change is worth modelling now rather than discovering at a renewal. Payroll, immigration and tax have to be run as one conversation here — we do, because the answer depends on all three.
Russian labour law requires salary to be paid at least twice a month, with no more than 15 calendar days between payments. A foreign company that runs its global payroll monthly is non-compliant from its first payroll run, and usually does not know it. Since 2023 the mid-month advance must be calculated on salary actually earned for the period worked — a fixed percentage of monthly pay, which was the old habit, no longer satisfies the rule.
Advance — typically the 20th to 25th, covering the first half of the month.
Final payment — the 5th to 10th of the following month.
NDFL — withheld at each payment and remitted to the FTS by the 28th.
Social contributions — calculated monthly, paid by the 28th of the following month.
This is where Russian payroll stops being an administrative matter. Under a 2024 Constitutional Court ruling, an employer owes interest at 1/300 of the CBR key rate per day on any accrued but unpaid salary, vacation pay or termination payment — including where the delay results from a court dispute the employer expected to win. Fines for a first offence reach ₽10 million; repeat violations run to ₽60 million.
There is no version of Russian payroll where a delay is manageable and gets tidied up later. That is worth knowing before you decide who runs it.
An EOR legally employs people on your behalf, so you can hire in Russia without an entity. It genuinely fits a few situations: testing the market with one or two hires, a six-to-twelve-month project, a single remote Russian employee, or a bridge while your LLC is being registered. It does not fit larger teams or long-term operations — the per-employee fee compounds, you have less control over the employment relationship, and some employees dislike being formally employed by a company they do not work for.
The practical point most pages will not tell you: the global EOR platforms — Deel, Remote, Rippling and the rest — generally do not service Russia, for sanctions-compliance reasons. Russian-market providers exist. If your plan begins with a global platform, check its Russia coverage explicitly before building a timeline on it.
Russian payroll reporting is built for Russian authorities, and it is not readable by a foreign finance team. We run the cycle in Russian for the FTS and the SFR, and report it back in English: cost per employee, the employer burden separated from net pay, headcount movements and the accruals your group needs for consolidation. Where we also run the accounting, the payroll figures are already reconciled into the books rather than handed across a gap between two providers — which is where a good share of the reconciliation problems we inherit were created.
We take payroll as one function rather than a set of filings: monthly calculation, payslips, NDFL, contributions, SFR reporting, employment documentation, the HQS regime where it applies, and terminations when they come. If you are moving from another provider, we reconcile the position before we take it over, so you are not inheriting someone else's arithmetic without knowing it. Our advisers trained at the Big Four and work in English, Russian, Chinese and Turkish.
Calculation, payslips and both statutory payments a month, with NDFL and contributions remitted by the 28th. The part where lateness costs 1/300 of the key rate a day.
The HQS regime applied and evidenced — exempt from social contributions, 13% NDFL from day one — plus the residency tracking that decides what everyone else pays.
Employment contracts, internal regulations and HR records that hold up — drafted for Russian law rather than translated from a group template that assumes a different one.
Moving from another provider or bringing it out of head office: we reconcile the existing position first, so you know what you are inheriting before it becomes yours.
Termination calculations and documentation done correctly the first time — including the accrued-but-unpaid interest exposure that a disputed departure creates.
You are budgeting headcount and want the real cost, not the salary line.
Your group runs payroll monthly and nobody has mentioned the twice-a-month rule.
You are hiring a foreign specialist and want to know whether HQS is worth it.
A departing employee is disputing their final settlement.
Your payroll provider and your accountant give you different numbers.
Recognise your situation? Payroll errors compound quietly, and they are cheapest to fix in the first month rather than the first audit.
30 minutes with a senior adviser — or send a note instead, if you would rather write.
The group had run Russian payroll from head office on a monthly cycle for two years, in good faith, and was non-compliant from the first run. Nobody had told them about the twice-a-month rule; their previous provider had processed what they were sent. We reconciled the position, quantified the accrued interest exposure, moved them onto a compliant cycle without a gap in payments, and applied the HQS regime to four foreign specialists who had been on standard terms throughout. The contribution saving on those four alone covered our first year.
Where payroll already exists, we reconcile the position before taking it on — you should know what you are inheriting.
Contracts, regulations, the regime you qualify for, and the calendar the cycle will run on.
Advance and final payment, NDFL, contributions, SFR reporting — on the statutory dates, not near them.
The Russian filings for the authorities; the English pack for head office, with employer cost separated from net pay.
Budget gross salary plus roughly 30% in employer social contributions. For ₽100,000 gross, the company's cost is about ₽130,000 and the employee receives about ₽87,000 after NDFL. SME-registered companies pay 15% rather than 30% on the portion above one federal minimum wage (₽27,093 a month), and accredited IT companies qualify for reduced tariffs.
Usually, and by a wide margin. HQS employees are exempt from social contributions entirely and pay 13% NDFL from day one regardless of residency — removing roughly 30% from the employment cost and avoiding the 30% non-resident rate. The condition is a minimum salary of ₽750,000 per quarter, moving to ₽717,000 per month from 1 March 2027, so a salary near the line is worth modelling now.
Yes. Russian labour law requires at least two payments a month with no more than 15 calendar days between them. A group running monthly payroll is non-compliant from the first run. Since 2023 the mid-month advance must also be calculated on salary actually earned for the period worked, not as a fixed percentage of monthly pay.
Interest accrues at 1/300 of the CBR key rate per day on any accrued but unpaid salary, vacation pay or termination payment — under a 2024 Constitutional Court ruling this applies even where the delay results from a court dispute. Fines reach ₽10 million for a first offence and ₽60 million for repeat violations.
For one or two hires, a short project, a single remote employee or a bridge while your LLC is being registered — yes, and it is often the right answer. For a growing team or an ongoing operation, the per-employee fee compounds and you have less control. One practical warning: the global EOR platforms such as Deel, Remote and Rippling generally do not service Russia for sanctions-compliance reasons, so check coverage explicitly before building a plan around one.
Yes, and we reconcile the existing position before we take it on rather than after. Most of the payroll problems we inherit were created in a handover where nobody checked what was being handed over.
Yes. Russian payroll reporting is built for the FTS and the SFR and is not readable by a foreign finance team. We run the statutory side in Russian and report back in English: cost per employee, employer burden separated from net pay, headcount movements and the accruals your group needs for consolidation.
Yes. Chinese nationals on HQS permits are a common case — 0% social contributions, 13% PIT from day one, regardless of how long they have been in Russia. We also handle the interaction between HQS payroll and the Russia-China tax treaty on employment income (Article 15 — employment income taxed in Russia). See our guide to hiring Chinese employees.
HQS status is lost automatically — the employee reverts to standard foreign national status with 30% PIT (if not yet a tax resident) and full 30% social contributions. We monitor all HQS employees quarterly and alert you before any threshold breach. Salary adjustments must be documented correctly in an amended employment contract.
Yes — but Russian labour law requires specific procedures for dismissal and getting it wrong creates liability. We prepare all dismissal documentation, calculate severance correctly (2 months' salary for redundancy by default), file the required SFR notifications and ensure the labour book entry is correctly made. We recommend engaging us before a dismissal decision is finalised.
By email, WhatsApp, Telegram or WeChat. Describe your situation briefly — we don’t need everything upfront.
A named adviser replies — not a generic inbox. We confirm whether we can help and propose a call if needed.
We ask about your situation, Russian entity structure and what you need. No charge. In English, Russian or Chinese.
Clear scope, fee and timeline. We start on receipt of the signed letter. No retainer lock-in on project work.
Since 2025 a foreign company can become an NDFL tax agent without any Russian presence — if the work runs through Russian systems. Different rules, different registration.
Practical support for international business in Russia.
Social contributions & SFR
Contributions calculated against the regime you actually qualify for: standard, the SME reduced rate above one minimum wage, accredited IT tariffs, or HQS exemption.