Opening a permanent makeup office: legal advice

Andriy Evstigneev , lawyer, candidate of legal sciences, associate professor, certified expert of the National Bar Association of Ukraine, director of the RSP International office in Ukraine

Opening a permanent makeup office is not a difficult task, but it is responsible, requiring compliance with and taking into account some legal aspects, on which the legality of your activities in the future will largely depend. I propose to consider these aspects in chronological order.

Business registration

Considering that the activity of the cabinet will be in the nature of an entrepreneurial activity (carried out for the purpose of making a profit), it is necessary to register as an individual entrepreneur (FOP) or establish a company (for example, a private enterprise or a limited liability company). Taking into account the relatively small turnover of the cabinet, the most acceptable option is to register its founder as a sole proprietorship, which is much easier than registering a company, as well as easier to prepare and submit reports and pay taxes. At the moment, such registration is carried out by registrars at the executive committees of local councils under local state administrations, specialized registration state and municipal organizations, as well as a significant number of notaries.

When registering as a private entrepreneur, the main type of activity, according to the KVED (classifier of types of economic activity) of 2010, the following must be indicated: 96.02 “Provision of services by hairdressers and beauty salons”, since such services include makeup, a variety of which is permanent. Obtaining any permits (licenses) for the provision of permanent make-up services is not provided for by the current legislation.

Choosing a taxation system

When registering the founder of the cabinet as an FLP, he has the right to choose the possibility of paying the so-called single tax. If the turnover of the cabinet does not exceed UAH 1.5 million per year (which is realistic) and the clients are private individuals, it is advisable to choose a single tax of the 2nd group (provides for monthly payment of up to 20% of the minimum wage and a single social contribution in the amount of 22 % of the minimum wage) . At the same time, with a turnover of up to 1 million, a cash register is not required.

If the founder of the cabinet does not become a single tax payer, he will be forced to pay personal income tax at a rate of 18%, which is less profitable.

Office space

The premises may be owned by the founder of the cabinet or rented by him from third parties. In the case of renting premises, it is important to check whether the landlord has the authority to lease the premises (documents for ownership or a power of attorney to transfer to rent from the owner, if the landlord is not the owner).

As for the requirements of a sanitary nature, the situation is ambiguous. On the one hand, there are no specific sanitary standards for classrooms. The current state sanitary norms and rules for hairdressing salons of various types DSPIN 2.2.2.022-99 cannot be fully applied to the office, since they contain requirements for premises consisting of several parts, while the office is usually 1⎼2 rooms. At the same time, I advise you to take into account the requirements of these rules as much as possible (as far as possible) when arranging the cabinet in the part in which they can be met (for example, in terms of the requirements for instrument disinfection).

Staff

It should be recognized that in the field of providing hairdressing and other beauty services, there is often an informal employment of masters. However, this comes with a heavy responsibility. Thus, according to the provisions of Part 3 of Article 40 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, the actual admission of an employee to work without an employment contract (contract) is punishable by a fine of UAH 8,500 to 17,000.

In addition, from January 1, 2017, new provisions of Article 265 of the Labor Code of Ukraine are in force, according to which, in fact, in addition to the above fine, so-called financial sanctions have been introduced for the actual admission to work without an employment contract (contract), registration of an employee for part-time time in the case of actual performance of work full time and payment of wages (remuneration) without accrual and payment of a single contribution for obligatory state social insurance and taxes ⎼ in the amount of 30 times the minimum wage established by law at the time the violation was discovered, for each employee, in respect of which a violation was committed (that is, UAH 96,000!) and for non-compliance with the minimum state guarantees in wages (that is, salary payments less than UAH 3,200 per month for full-time work, and also less than 19 34 UAH per hour) ⎼ 10 times the minimum wage.

These “new” sanctions, in accordance with the procedure approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated July 17, 2013 No. 509, are entitled to be applied by the State Labor Inspectorate of Ukraine, the moratorium on inspections of which is not in effect this year (this is provided for by Article 6 of the Law of Ukraine “On temporal features of the implementation of measures of state supervision (control) in the field of economic activity "dated November 6, 2016).

Given the above, in order to avoid extremely unpleasant proceedings in the light of possible sanctions, I recommend that you carefully approach the official registration of employees, as well as the calculation and payment of their salaries.

Remember also that the hiring of a new employee must be notified in advance in writing to the fiscal service (tax office) at the place of registration of the employer.

Contractual relationship

The main types of contractual relations that may arise when opening an office are rental (in the case of renting the premises in which the office is located) and purchase and sale (supply) of equipment, consumables, cosmetics.

Based on my practice, I advise you to approach the issues of preparing the texts of such agreements as carefully as possible. Remember that a lease agreement for up to 3 years must be concluded in writing (a longer one is still notarized). It is important to check whether the landlord has the authority to transfer the premises for rent, and, if possible, the absence of any prohibitions on such a transfer (for example, if the premises are in a mortgage).

When concluding agreements with suppliers, do not hesitate to ask them for a document confirming the official nature of their activities (state registration documents, quality certificates for products, etc.). When paying, pay attention to the need for its documentary confirmation and carrying out to specific sellers (it is no secret that often money is transferred from hand to hand or through various payment systems to the details of any third parties in relation to the buyer). Remember that in the absence of proper processing of payments, you should only rely on the integrity of your seller, and in the event of disputes, it will be more than problematic to prove the fact of payment.