On the performance of handicraft activities by natural persons

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko signed Decree No.328 on 21 August to regulate how natural persons can perform handicraft activities.

The document approves the regulation on the performance of handicraft activities by natural persons. The Council of Ministers has been tasked with compiling a list of handicraft activities by 1 September. As from 1 September natural persons will have to get registered as craftsmen according to this list.

In particular, the list is supposed to include blacksmithing, artistic adaptation and painting of goods made of wood, stone, ceramics, yarn production, and individual traditional national kinds of handicraft.

At the same time for the sake of reviving unique handicrafts municipal government agencies have been authorized to choose the additional kinds of such activities in their own territory.

Depending on their choices, craftsmen will have to pay either a tax on earned income or a handicraft levy.

Municipal authorities will allow natural persons to pay the handicraft levy if the person is a people’s master or a member of the Belarusian Union of Masters of Arts and Crafts or works as a master of arts and crafts (handicraft). The criteria also include getting paid a retirement pension or a long-service pension, having a disability of the 1st degree or the 2nd degree, living in a small populated locality (under 50 people).

The decree also stipulates the procedure for starting handicraft activities. The applicant will have to get a notification for paying an earned income tax via the mobile app “Tax on earned income” or will have to get an administrative decision from municipal authorities upon the payment of the handicraft levy.

The document prohibits craftsmen to use industrial machines and equipment in the course of handicraft activities. Craftsmen are allowed to sell their goods on rented premises in retail outlets or other facilities, in shopping centers, on the Internet and via legal persons and self-employed businessmen by signing civil law contracts.

Innovations of the decree are designed to offer a comprehensive solution to procedural issues encountered in the course of handicraft activities and will contribute to the development of handicraft activities on the basis of national traditions and the transfer of Belarus’ cultural heritage to consequent generations.