Commercial organizations (legal entities), including individual entrepreneurs without special legal status
In Belarus, social entrepreneurship is currently carried out through commercial organizations, including legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, without any special legal status dedicated to social entrepreneurship.
The main purpose of activity combines two objectives: generating profit while simultaneously addressing existing social problems within society. The conduct of activities follows the general regulatory order, governed primarily by the Civil Code of the Republic of Belarus (No. 218-З of December 7, 1998, revised January 5, 2021) and the Special Part of the Tax Code of the Republic of Belarus (No. 71-З of December 29, 2009, revised December 29, 2020).
Financial Support
Several financial support mechanisms are available to commercial organizations and individual entrepreneurs. The Belarusian Fund for Financial Support of Entrepreneurs (BFFSE) provides support in the form of financial resources on either a repayable or non-repayable basis, property on the terms of financial lease, and guarantees on concessional loans provided by Belarusian banks.
Additionally, reducing factors are applied when individual entrepreneurs and organizations pay for rented premises, provided that persons with disabilities constitute 50% or more of the employees working on those premises. Compliance with this criterion is confirmed by the lessee at the conclusion of the leasing agreement and may be verified by the leaseholder during the period of its validity.
Furthermore, measures are in place to support the adaptation of persons with disabilities to work activities. These measures aim at the acquisition and improvement of professional knowledge, skills, and abilities by persons with disabilities, taking into account their existing or newly acquired specialty or profession. Under this arrangement, a commercial organization provides a workplace, the employee performs tasks set by the employer, and the state assumes all expenses related to maintaining that workplace.
Tax Relief
Organizations employing persons with disabilities benefit from exemptions on profit tax and value-added tax with respect to gross profit — excluding profit from trade, purchasing and intermediary activities, income from renting out property, or other gratuitous use of property — provided that persons with disabilities constitute at least 30% of the average number of employees during the relevant period. Individual entrepreneurs with disabilities are entitled to an increased standard deduction for income tax purposes.
Discounts on Social Security Contributions
Organizations in which persons with disabilities and retirees together constitute at least 50% of the average number of employees, and whose property is fully owned by such persons, as well as children’s villages and towns, pay insurance contributions to Belgosstrakh (the State Insurance Company) at 50% of the standard insurance rate, which amounts to a total insurance rate of 0.6%.
With regard to contributions to the Social Security Fund, employers are released from paying obligatory insurance payments for social security retirement payouts on behalf of persons with disabilities of Groups I and II, paying only 6% instead of the standard 34%. Self-employed individuals with disabilities of Groups I and II may choose whether or not to pay fees to the Social Security Fund. Working individuals with disabilities are additionally entitled to an increased standard deduction for income tax purposes.
Educational, Informational Support and Public Procurement
General regulations apply to both educational and informational support as well as to participation in public procurement procedures, with no specific additional provisions currently in place for social enterprises or entrepreneurs in Belarus.
