The regions of the Far North are characterized by difficult living conditions associated with local natural and climatic features. Therefore, social security for citizens employed in the specified area provides numerous privileges and benefits, including a vacation trip within the Russian Federation paid for by the enterprise.
In addition to the paid days of rest provided to citizens on a general basis, an additional paid period has been established for those who work in the Far North (24 calendar days) and in equivalent regions (16 calendar days). Organizations located in these areas must reimburse employees for travel and return travel expenses from their own resources.
Conditions for providing preferential leave in the Far North.
Reduced travel for northerners is provided to those employees and family members who live and work in the Far North and equivalent areas. The regions of the Far North and equivalent areas include the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug (KhMAO) and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug).
If you live and work in these regions, then you and your family members have the right to pay for travel to and from your vacation destination.
An employee who does not live in the far north is not provided with the benefit.
Taxation and insurance of preferential payments
Regardless of the taxation system adopted by the enterprise, compensation for employee expenses for moving across the country to their location during vacation and back is not taxed:
- tax on the income received by citizens (Article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);
- deductions for compulsory pension or health insurance (Article 9 of Federal Law No. 212, July 24, 2009);
- contributions for insurance against industrial accidents and occupational diseases (Article 20 of Federal Law No. 125, 07/24/1998).
Exemption from taxes and insurance contributions is determined by the internal documents of the organization:
- in the amounts established in contracts (labor, collective), Regulations on days of rest;
- with the frequency specified in contracts or regulatory documents of the enterprise (at least once every 2 years);
- when providing a list of supporting documents established by the collective agreement or other documents of the organization.
When working under a simplified taxation system, the enterprise base taken into account for the calculation is not reduced by the amount of compensation expenses for employee travel on vacation (Article 346 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
When paying a single tax on the difference between expenses and income, an organization can take into account preferential travel expenses for employees as part of labor costs.
Law regulating preferential leave
The right to payment for travel to and from the place of vacation is stated in Article 325 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
Before 2014, the first paragraph of the article looked like this:
Thus, until 2014, “state employees” (teachers, doctors, etc.) had the right to reduced fares. In addition, the right to preferential fares for northerners was extended to many oil companies, such as Rosneft PJSC, Lukoil OJSC, Slavneft OJSC, Gazpromneft OJSC, Surgutneftegaz OJSC and others.
On April 2, 2014, Federal Law No. 50 (FZ No. 50) was issued and signed, amending Article 325 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and increasing the categories of workers who are entitled to pay for preferential travel.
In the new edition, Article 325 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation reads as follows:
Based on this article, it follows that all employees living in the regions of the Far North and equivalent areas and working in organizations located in the Far North and equivalent areas have the right to pay for travel to the place of use of vacation and back on the territory of the Russian Federation. Members of the employee's family have the same right.
How to create an order
Until 2013, the T-6 form was used to issue a vacation order (approved by Resolution of the State Statistics Committee dated January 5, 2004 No. 1). There is no need to use it now. However, it contains all the necessary details, and many employers still use it as a vacation order.
Only a few fields need to be filled in the form, and the order is ready. It reflects the following information:
- Name of the organization;
- order number and date of its preparation;
- Full name of the employee and his personnel number;
- the structural unit in which he works, as well as his position;
- type of leave;
- the period for which the leave was granted, the number of days or the period during which the employee will be absent (depending on the type of leave, blocks “A” and/or “B” are filled in);
- total duration of the vacation period (in block “B”). If only one type of leave is provided, its period must also be duplicated in this line.
An order for granting leave is usually prepared by the HR department. The basis is any document, which depends on the type of vacation. A copy of the approved document is sent to the accounting department. Information about leave based on the order must be entered into the employee’s personal card.
When does the legal right to preferential travel for northerners arise?
Let's look at some popular questions regarding preferential fares for northerners.
When can I exercise my right to preferential leave?
To deal with this issue, let us again turn to Article 325 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the first paragraph of which states that
If you got a job in an organization in January 2021, then you will have the right to annual paid leave after six months, that is, in July 2021. At the same time as this right, you will have the right to preferential leave in 2021. That is, you can use preferential leave in the first year after employment.
How often can I take advantage of preferential holidays in the north?
You have the right to use preferential leave once every two years. If you used the right to preferential leave for northerners in 2021, then the next time you will be able to use this right is in 2021. If you do not take advantage of the right to preferential leave in 2021, this right will be transferred to the next calendar year, i.e. 2021.
An employee, once every two calendar years, has the right to pay the cost of travel and baggage transportation to the place of use of vacation and back within the territory of the Russian Federation and back by any type of transport (air, railway, sea, river, bus), including personal with the exception of taxis.
What else do you need to know?
The right to leave arises for an employee after 6 months of work in the company.
If additional days fall on state holidays, then they are not included in the number of calendar days of rest and are not paid (Article 151 “Calculation of the duration of vacations”, part one of Article 147). You can either combine the required days with regular leave, or use your right at a convenient time in agreement with the employer. It is important that one of the periods is 14 days continuously. In the working time sheet, additional days off are indicated by the letter code “OD” or the digital code “10”. If non-working holidays occur during additional paid leave, then this is indicated in the timesheet by the letter code “B” or the digital code “26”.
What kind of transport pays for discounted travel in the north?
The following types of transport are suitable for discounted holidays for northerners:
by air (plane)
by rail (train)
by road (bus or personal car), with the exception of taxis
Personal transport is usually understood as a car owned by the employee, spouse, children, parents of the employee, parents of the employee’s spouse.
river or sea mode of transport (boat, ship)
If you are flying on vacation by plane, then in addition to the plane ticket (it can be electronic), you will need to keep your boarding passes (they will be given to you after checking in for the flight).
When using a discounted holiday by train, bus or water transport, do not forget to keep the tickets confirming your purchase and travel.
If your preferential vacation is on personal transport, then do not forget to keep receipts (stamped) from all gas stations where you refueled. In addition, you need to take an itinerary receipt from work and, upon arrival at your vacation destination, make a note at the local police department or administration stating that you actually arrived in this locality and killed from the locality at the end of your vacation.
Where and how to get it?
Help can be obtained by contacting the head of the HR department or directly to the manager.
In this case, it is better for the employee to draw up a written statement in order to have a legal basis for challenging the decision of his superiors if the latter does not suit him. The application indicates the dates of unused days and sets out the circumstances that prevented the full stay on vacation.
The remaining details are standard for business documentation: the name of the addressee is indicated at the top, the date on the left and the signature on the right are indicated at the bottom.
How to take a discounted holiday abroad
According to Article 325 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, it is stated that payment for preferential travel is carried out within the territory of the Russian Federation
Then, according to this article, the employer is obliged to pay you a preferential leave abroad to the point of crossing the Russian border inspection point, unless otherwise specified in the Local regulatory documentation of your organization.
Let's say you are traveling from Surgut to Helsinki by train, you will go through customs in the city of St. Petersburg and you will be paid for train tickets from Surgut to St. Petersburg.
Or another example: you are flying by plane from Surgut to Turkey, but with a transfer in Moscow. You will undergo customs control in Moscow, so the employer is obliged to pay for your travel only to Moscow.
But in many oil companies (such as Rosneft, Slavneft, Lukoil, Gazpromneft, Surgutneftegaz and others) and in some budgetary organizations there are certain Local regulatory documents, for example a Collective Agreement, which states that when using preferential leave abroad by plane, without landing to the nearest border crossing point at the airport of the Russian Federation, travel is paid to the nearest actual border crossing point at the airport of the Russian Federation.
For example, you are flying from Surgut airport to Thailand by direct flight. The nearest airport to the actual point of crossing the Russian border will be the airport in Irkutsk, so you will be paid for air travel from Surgut to Irkutsk and back using a certificate from the air ticket office.
Basic Rules
In accordance with the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, other Russian laws, an employment contract and internal regulations, the employer provides the hired person with various types of leave. The algorithm for their design is approximately the same:
- we receive an application from the employee (not required if leave is provided according to a schedule), and in some cases additional documents;
- we issue a vacation order;
- we sign it with the manager;
- we introduce him to the employee against his signature;
- We transfer a copy to the accounting department to calculate payment.
Whatever the leave may be - annual paid, without pay, maternity leave or otherwise - before it begins, an order is drawn up to grant leave to the employee. This is a local regulation that gives a person the right to be absent from the workplace for a specified period of time for a specific reason.
Family members in the law on preferential leave for northerners
Family members include a dependent spouse, minor children who actually live with the employee.
In some oil companies such as Rosneft, Slavneft, Lukoil, Gazpromneft, Surgutneftegaz and budgetary organizations, the Collective Agreement expands this concept and family members also include adult children studying full-time, under 23 years of age.
Also, in the Collective Agreement, it may be stated that the spouse will also be paid for travel, even if she is not a dependent, but she should NOT use preferential leave in the north in the same year as you.
Members of the employee's family must live in the Far North and equivalent areas.
- The right arises for family members who are dependent on the employee;
- When an employee is hired, the right to payment of travel costs for family members accrues simultaneously with the emergence of the employee’s right.
- Payment for travel to family members is made regardless of the time and place of their use of vacation and regardless of the time of use of vacation by the employee himself, but within one calendar year in which the benefit was provided to the employee.
- Members of the employee's family who do not live in the far north are not provided with the benefit.
Internal travel for recreation and treatment in Russia at the expense of the employer
They decided to support domestic tourism back in 2021 - amendments made to Article 24.2 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation allow employers to pay for trips to employees and members of their families starting from 2021.
At the same time, an employee cannot (as is the case with vacations for residents of the northern regions of Russia) purchase a voucher himself and then present it to his employer for payment. The organization (or individual entrepreneur) must do this independently by concluding an agreement with a travel agent or tour operator.
Also, tourist services are compensated when they are provided:
- spouse;
- parents;
- children (including adopted children) under the age of 18;
- children (including adopted children) under the age of 24 studying full-time in educational organizations;
- wards under the age of 18 and former wards (after termination of guardianship or trusteeship) under the age of 24, studying full-time in educational organizations.
Not all services can be paid for by the employer. Or rather, he can pay for everything, but only some are covered by the law, in particular:
- travel through the territory of the Russian Federation to the destination and back (it is possible to agree on a different route specified in the contract);
- accommodation of a tourist and his family members in a hotel (hotels) or other places of accommodation (for example, motels, campsites, etc.), as well as a sanatorium-resort treatment and recreation facility;
- food for the tourist and his family members, if the service is included in the accommodation services;
- sanatorium and resort services;
- excursion services.
List of documents for preferential leave in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in 2021
1. The plane, train or bus ticket itself
2. For employees traveling by plane, in addition to this, a boarding pass.
3. For employees traveling by personal transport, gas station receipts and a route map with a note on arrival in and departure from the holiday city.
4. Certificate for you and your family members that you actually live in the regions of the Far North or equivalent areas (KhMAO AND Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug)
A document confirming the fact of residence in the RKS (copy of a passport with registration at the place of residence, a certificate of family composition indicating the registration mark / rental agreement for residential premises, which must include family members living with the employee / other documents confirming the fact of residence in the RKS );
5. If you flew abroad by plane, then you need a certificate from the air ticket office about the cost of the flight to the nearest actual border crossing point at the Russian airport.
Copies of foreign passports with a border crossing stamp from the border service are also required.
6.If you flew abroad from a tour operator, then you will also need your travel voucher with a receipt and a certificate from the tour operator about the cost of the charter flight. This cost must be higher than the cost of the certificate from the air ticket office, otherwise you will be paid the lesser amount of these certificates.
6.Copies of documents of your family members for whom the discounted travel will be paid (Russian passport and birth certificate with a mark of registration in the regions of the far north.
7. If your child is an adult under the age of 23 and is studying full-time, then you also need a certificate from the educational institution stating that he is actually studying with them full-time.
8. For a dependent spouse, a certificate from the employment center is required stating that she is indeed not working at the time of the 2021 preferential leave, or a copy of her work record book.
If the local regulatory documentation of your organization provides for payment of travel for your spouse, regardless of whether she is dependent or not, then you need a certificate from the spouse’s place of work stating that he/she did not use the right to travel this year preferential leave. In addition, a certificate from the Tax Inspectorate is required stating that the spouse is not an individual entrepreneur.
8.Marriage registration certificate
Nordic holidays and weekends for parents
If a citizen working in the north has children under the age of 16, then his employer, upon written application from the employee, must provide him with an additional day off every month, albeit without compensation (Article 319 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).
In addition, once a year a citizen has the right to receive paid leave of at least 14 days in order to accompany a minor child who enters an educational institution located in another area. This leave should be granted for each child only once (Article 322 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). To use the relevant preferences, you must:
- the parent had sufficient experience to receive leave;
- the parent provided the employer with a document from the educational institution confirming the child’s participation in the entrance exams.
IMPORTANT! We are not talking about “extra” vacation days: the norms of Art. 322 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation only gives the parent the right to receive paid (main or northern) leave on specific days, in fact having an advantage when drawing up a vacation schedule in the company.
How to write an application correctly?
The application must be drawn up correctly, adhering to the standard structure of the document. Errors and corrections are not allowed. When drawing up a document in writing, you should use a pen with blue or purple ink.
The application must contain the following information:
- first name, patronymic, last name, position of the head of the company;
- company name;
- request for leave;
- start and end dates of vacation;
- duration of additional leave;
- grounds for granting days off;
- Full name, position of the applicant;
- date of writing;
- signature.
The standard document structure is shown below:
- a cap . The full names of the manager and employee, positions, and name of the organization are indicated. This information is located in the upper right corner;
- Title of the document . Written in the center of the line;
- text part. This is a request for days off. Also provides links to Russian legislation, a list of attached documents;
- final part. A signature is placed, the date of preparation of the document, the initials and surname of the applicant are indicated.
