The amount of the average Russian salary is used in alimony legislation when resolving the issue of collecting alimony debt, which arises due to the debtor’s failure to fulfill alimony requirements - periodic or systematic omission of monthly payments or payment of funds in incomplete amounts.
The average monthly salary indicator is used when calculating debt only by an authorized official - a bailiff - in the event that:
- funds are assigned as a share of the payer’s income;
- during the period of non-payment, the debtor was an unemployed person who did not have any other periodic income and was not registered with the Employment Center (labour exchange) to look for a job.
Since a non-working person during the period of non-payment of funds does not have income from which the percentage of alimony established by the court or agreement can be withheld, the basis for deductions is the average monthly salary in the Russian Federation , and not separately by region.
In October 2021, the average monthly nominal wage of workers in the Russian economy as a whole amounted to 49,539 rubles. The values for 2021 have not yet been determined; Rosstat will calculate them later. The article will be updated as new information becomes available.
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Legislation
According to Art. 80 of the RF IC, all parents must take part in the upbringing and financial support of children until they reach adulthood. If the spouses do not actually live together or are divorced, the one with whom the child remains can request alimony in any of the following ways:
- Conclusion of an alimony agreement. The amount of payments is determined by the parties independently and does not depend on the average earnings in Russia.
- Filing a claim. Effective when the parties fail to agree and the payer avoids voluntary payments. If he has officially confirmed income, alimony is established in shares depending on the number of children. In the absence of such, the amount of payments for minors is determined in a fixed monetary amount, and the average earnings in the Russian Federation are used for calculation.
- Issuance of a court order. The claimant submits a corresponding application and receives an order within 5 days. The amount of alimony is determined depending on the circumstances.
For 2021, the amount of alimony payments is:
| For one child | For two children | For three children or more |
| 25% | 33% | 50% |
Important! Collection of alimony in a fixed amount is made if it is not possible to establish the payer’s earnings or if they are missing. Also, payments in a fixed amount are established upon receipt of wages in foreign currency (Article 83 of the RF IC).
When determining the amount of alimony, the court is guided by the financial situation of both parties. If a fixed amount is assigned, the calculation is based on average earnings in Russia, and not in the region of residence of the payer.
Average amount of alimony for various methods of calculation in Russia
The primary responsibility of parents is to provide for their child. In the event of a divorce, the mother or father who does not live with the child is obliged to compensate the other for maintenance of the minor. This obligation is established by the family legislation of the Russian Federation. Until now, the procedure for making payments, the average amount of alimony and their calculation have not changed.
Amount of alimony payments in Russia
The amount of payments can be established by agreement between the parents or by court decision. But in any of the options, this amount should not be less than that determined by the legislation of the Russian Federation. In 2019, at least 2,820 rubles should be paid for 1 child, 3,723 for 2, and 5,640 rubles for three or more.
The average amount of alimony obligations is determined by agreement of the parties at a notary or in court. This amount averages about 6,000 rubles. It may exceed this size or be lower depending on prevailing factors.
When are average earnings used?
Determining the amount of average earnings in the Russian Federation will be required if:
- Alimony is established in a fixed monetary amount.
- The debtor deliberately hides his income and is not officially employed. Lack of work is not grounds for canceling alimony obligations, so the national average will be used for calculations.
- If the payer has incurred a debt, but his income for the period of non-payment is unknown. The bailiff in charge of the case uses average earnings to calculate the debt.
Average wage is an indicator that establishes the average income of the employed population.
Here the earnings of specialists of different classes are taken into account: for example, one earns 20,000 rubles, and the second – 200,000 rubles, but both will be taken into account. It is for this reason that the country’s indicators often exceed real incomes, because most people rarely earn more than 50,000 rubles, and the actual average salary excluding wealthy people is 15-20,000 rubles. Important! If the alimony payer does not work anywhere, but receives a pension or other social benefit, the calculation of alimony will be based on its amount.
For example:
Citizen Afanasyev R.N. receives 10,000 rubles monthly. pensions. He has a young son. The court ordered him payments in the amount of: 10,000 x 25% = 2,500 rubles.
If the payer belongs to a socially protected category of citizens, alimony will be established for him as a percentage of the benefit. Payments in a fixed monetary amount are rarely assigned.
❗ Inconsistent payer’s earnings
If we are talking about processing alimony payments with unstable earnings, then here, as in the case if the payer is a person who does not have a permanent job, or a person who has not registered with the employment service of his region as unemployed, then here for To obtain information about how much income a person has, you can act in two ways:
- by contacting bailiffs with a request for the need to track a person’s existing income and expenses . Such tracking is carried out only after court documents have been received on the need to determine the amount of alimony. The next step is to determine the actual amount of alimony that must be paid for a minor child. To determine such income, all receipts that can be tracked in bank accounts are taken into account, as well as all expenses incurred by the potential alimony payer. However, this method is quite complicated from the point of view of execution, since it will take a lot of time to determine what a person’s income is, even if he does not work. Often the period for determining the amount of earnings reaches six months, or even a year;
- the use of witness testimony that provides the court with information about the defendant’s income and expenses . Based on such testimony, the court determines the amounts that are subject to monthly payments to the minor child.
Calculation of average salary debt
To understand why it is more profitable to pay alimony on time and not hide your income, just look at a practical example:
Dakhov O.N.’s official salary is 20,000 rubles. In 2016, he was assigned alimony to pay for one child - 25% of his salary, i.e. 5,000 rub. The alimony obligee stopped paying money for the maintenance of the minor in May 2021. Dakhov's ex-wife O.N. turned to the bailiff to draw up a resolution on debt settlement on 08/01/2019. How it was calculated:
The average salary in Russia since the beginning of 2021 is 36,900 rubles.
36,900 x 25% = 9,225 rubles. – the amount of alimony for one month.
9,225 x 3 (months) = 27,675 rubles. – principal amount of debt without penalty.
The penalty was calculated as follows:
27,675 x 0.1% = 27,675 rubles.
27.675 x 90 (days overdue) = 2,490.75 rubles. – the total amount of the penalty.
2,490.75 + 27,675 = 30,165.75 rubles. - total to be paid.
If the payer had fulfilled his obligations in good faith, for the same period he would have had to pay only 15,000 rubles, which is two times less than the assigned payments after recalculation.
How is alimony collected?
In accordance with Art. 12 of the Law on Enforcement Proceedings, the executive documents on the basis of which alimony is collected are:
- writs of execution;
- court orders;
- notarized agreements on payment of alimony (or their notarized copies),
and from 2021 also notarized mediation agreements (or their notarized copies).
The amount of alimony is established by a court decision or agreement on the payment of alimony and is indicated in the writ of execution. Alimony is collected monthly, the procedure for determining the amount is described above.
According to Art. 138 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and Part 3 of Art. 99 of the Law on Enforcement Proceedings, the total amount of all deductions when paying alimony for minor children cannot exceed 70%. Moreover, the amount of deductions is determined based on the amounts remaining after taxes are withheld.
In accordance with Art. 109 of the RF IC, the administration of the organization at the place of work of a person obligated to pay alimony on the basis of a notarized agreement on the payment of alimony or on the basis of a writ of execution, a court order, is obliged to withhold monthly alimony from the wages and (or) other income of the person obligated to pay alimony, and pay or transfer them at the expense of the person obligated to pay alimony to the person receiving alimony no later than three days from the date of payment of wages and (or) other income to the person obligated to pay alimony.
In turn, the recipient of alimony chooses how it is more convenient for him to receive alimony:
- at the cash desk of the organization where the alimony payer works;
- from the bank account to which alimony is transferred;
- by postal transfer.
The recipient must inform the accounting department of the organization carrying out the deduction about the decision made by writing a statement, which, among other things, reflects the method of receiving the funds, the postal address, and, if necessary, bank account details. The transfer and transfer of funds for alimony is carried out at the expense of the debtor.
When issuing alimony in cash from the organization's cash desk personally to the recipient or by his power of attorney, the cashier is obliged to note the number, date and place of issue of the presented passport or other document identifying the recipient, as well as the place of his registration.
Calculation of alimony based on average salary
When assigning payments to minors in a fixed amount, the average earnings in the country, as well as the cost of living in the region, are also used. How it's done:
- The average salary at the time of collection of alimony is calculated.
- The number of children for whom they will be paid is determined.
- The amount is calculated.
Let's look at a detailed calculation example:
Bogdanov O.L. two children, no official income, therefore, he will not be able to confirm his income in court. During the divorce, the wife filed a claim for alimony. How they were calculated:
36,900 (SWP in Russia) x 33% (amount of alimony for two children) = 12,177 rubles. - total payable.
If there was one child:
36,900 x 25% = 9,225 rubles.
For three children:
36,900 x 50% = 18,450 rub.
What details do bailiffs take into account when making calculations:
- At the time of debt calculation, information on average earnings is requested from Rosstat. In the future it must be received every month.
- When determining the amount of debt, personal income tax in the amount of 13% is not withheld from average earnings.
- The debt is collected on the day it is fully repaid by the payer.
- Debt calculation using average salary indicators is carried out every quarter by a bailiff.
Child support calculator
Amount of children:
Second parent's salary:
Deduct personal income tax from salary:
Result: rub.
Does official status matter?
Ruzanna Khanamiryan says that labor status does not matter. In any case, parents are obligated to support their minor children, regardless of whether they are officially employed or not. If a person nevertheless joined the labor exchange and was officially recognized as unemployed, then alimony will be calculated from his unemployment benefit, especially since for the first three months it is calculated based on the previous salary.
Yuri Nikolaevich warns that if the amount of the benefit turns out to be significantly lower than the alimony obligations, the debt will continue to accumulate and will be collected later.
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Important!
The amount of alimony is calculated based on all the citizen’s income, including creative fees, one-time part-time jobs, etc. If the bailiff receives information that the defaulter has additional sources of income, he will collect the required amount from them as well. More often, the main informants in this case are ex-spouses.
“As a rule, the ambitions of the mother, who does not receive what is rightfully due to her, have a very strong impact. She tries in every possible way to find out where her ex-husband receives additional money, and informs the bailiff so that he takes appropriate measures,” notes Kapshtyk.
If the person who is obligated to pay alimony is a non-working disabled person or a pensioner, then payments for the child are assigned based on the pension.
⭐ What if the defendant is an unemployed pensioner or disabled person?
If the payer of alimony is an unemployed pensioner or disabled person, then to calculate such payments all the income that the payer has will be taken into account - an age or disability pension, additional payments from the state, etc. In the event that the specified income will be less than the subsistence level established within the state (if the region does not have its own federal values) or less than the regional subsistence level (if such indicators are established), the state assumes the responsibility for paying alimony to the defendant’s child.
The calculation of the amount of alimony in this case will be carried out entirely by the state, as a result of which the recipient should provide the maximum amount of data, including documentary type, that will confirm their need for funds covering the cost of living for the child.
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Transfer methods
The parties can agree on different ways of transferring alimony:
- To a current account;
- To a bank card;
- In cash;
- By mail;
- Deduction from salary.
Most often, as practice shows, transfers to a bank account are used, including transfers when deducted from wages by the employer. When transferring funds, it is advisable to indicate in the comments that these are alimony payments, in order to avoid misunderstandings. If the transfer of money is carried out from hand to hand (in cash), you must take a receipt for each amount of alimony.
