Main points
- Retired sole proprietors are exempt from paying some taxes, but must pay military duty and business taxes.
- There is a risk that the insurance experience of individual entrepreneurs who worked before 2004 may not be counted without supporting documents.
Pensioners-self-employed persons / Photo Shutterstock
You can start your own business at any age. Registering as an individual entrepreneur provides new opportunities for additional income. At the same time, pensioners may not pay all taxes, but there are still mandatory contributions.
What tax are pensioners-self-employed individuals exempt from?
Whether it is beneficial for a pensioner to be an individual entrepreneur is stated in a message from the Main Department of the State Tax Service (State Tax Service) in the Kyiv region.
According to the law “On the collection and accounting of a single contribution for mandatory state social insurance”, individuals – entrepreneurs or sole proprietors who receive a pension have the right not to pay the single social contribution (SSC) for themselves.
Tax exemption applies to both the general and simplified taxation systems that individual entrepreneurs choose for themselves.
To receive a “bonus” under the appropriate conditions, there is no need to separately contact the Pension Fund. After all, such information enters the system automatically through data exchange between the Pension Fund and the Ministry of Social Policy.
Please note! Pensioners can pay a single tax voluntarily.
In fact, the state provides the right to choose. There is a bonus part when a pensioner-self-employed person can refuse to pay tax. However, if he wants to, he can pay.
Do pensioners-sole proprietors need to pay any other taxes?
Yes, regardless of the age and status of the individual entrepreneur, payment of military duty and business taxes (by individual entrepreneur group) is mandatory .
Important! Even if the individual entrepreneur belongs to a pensioner, these taxes must be paid.
One of the unpleasant moments can be the loss of subsidies . After all, individual entrepreneurs, like the income of an entrepreneur, are taken into account when deciding whether to grant or cancel benefits.
However, the advantage for pensioners still remains. Despite the additional activity, they will receive the pension that is assigned to them. And significant savings on the social security system is a rather profitable option if people want to take advantage of it.
Can self-employed persons not have their insurance experience counted?
The RadioTrek resource states that due to special conditions for paying the social security contribution, some individual entrepreneurs risk not having their insurance years counted. Especially for those who worked in the 1990s and early 2000s.
In particular, this concerns the following cases:
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Activity until 2004. To count the experience, you need to confirm it with documents: patent, certificate, tax certificates and confirmation of payment of contributions.
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Breaks or lack of payment of the Social Security Contribution after 2004. Insurance experience is taken into account only for actual contributions. Irregular payments or amounts below the minimum are not counted.
Please note! The Pension Fund only counts confirmed periods of activity and contribution payments.
That is, if you do not confirm the actual payment of the Social Security Contribution (SSC) – the main contribution for calculating a pension – the PFU will not count the corresponding periods of work.
What is known about pensions for self-employed persons in 2026?
Due to the increase in the minimum wage, the Unified Social Tax (UST) – the tax on which pensions will be calculated – is also increasing. The minimum contribution to the Unified Social Tax is now 1,902 hryvnia per month.
It was previously reported that for sole proprietors, the retirement rules are consistent with the general rules.