International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, 2020, 9, 2579-2585 2579 E-ISSN: 1929-4409/20 © 2020 Lifescience Global Modern Economic Conditions and Impact of the Tax Regime on the Legalization of Self-Employment: Russian and Foreign Experience E.V. Bolonina 1,* , A.R. Khafizova 2 and V. I Nasyrova 2 1 Department of Financial Markets and Financial Institutions, Institute of Management, Economics and Finance, Russia 2 Department of Economic Security and Taxation, Institute of Management, Economics and Finance, Russia Abstract: This article analyzes Russian and international experience in approaches to taxation of self-employed individuals and their impact on the legalization of activities based on modern economic conditions. The purpose of the study is to conduct a comparative characteristic of the criteria for determining self-employed persons and various forms of their taxation in Russia and abroad at the present stage. The special tax regime for the self-employed in Russia has been in effect since 2019 and is one of the youngest in the tax system, so the analysis of foreign experience in the taxation of self-employed persons is of particular practical interest. The authors analyze global statistics on the number of self-employed persons and identify trends in their changes not only in the Russian Federation, but also in some foreign countries, especially in the light of the development of digital technologies and the emergence of new opportunities for independent activity by individuals. The research made it possible to draw intermediate conclusions for Russia at this stage of the new regime implementation: whether modern tax regimes stimulate the development of self- employment, how optimal these regimes are for legalizing citizens ' income, and what trends of foreign countries in the field of self-employed taxation may be relevant for modern Russia. Keywords: Self-employment, tax on the self-employed, individual entrepreneur, professional income, shadow economy. INTRODUCTION Modern economic conditions in Russia provide many opportunities for the development of independent economic activity. The result is an annual increase in the number of individuals engaged in private business with state registration and in the status of self- employed persons without registration of activities shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: Dynamics of individual entrepreneurs and legal entities. Official data from the Federal tax service of the Russian Federation shows the following results: as of January 1, 2020, the number of individual *Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Financial Markets and Financial Institutions, Institute of Management, Economics and Finance, Russia; Tel: 89033402391; E-mail: juninj.il@yahoo.com entrepreneurs is 3.4 million people, with an annual tendency to increase while reducing the number of legal entities (Bolonina, 2019). Thus, at the moment, the form of private individual activity is more interesting for business development. Official statistics on the self- employed population are kept in the Russian Federation only since 2017, so the data is not significant yet and amounts to 4,676 people at the beginning of 2020. However, the increase in self- employed in 2019 was 52 % (1614 people). In addition, more than 330,000 individuals (self-employed and individual entrepreneurs) in four regions of Russia in 2019 chose an experimental regime in the form of a tax on professional income. Despite such a high growth rate over the past year, official data indicate a low involvement of individuals in legalizing their activities and declaring income (Lee et al. 2017; Kösters, and Smits, 2020). Thus, according to unofficial data and sociological surveys, the number of self-employed Russians is about 16-17 millions of people, or almost a quarter of all working citizens of Russia. Data from the Federal state statistics service shows an increase in informal employment in 2019 (Figure 2). The reduction in the number of legal entities with the growth of individual entrepreneurs and informal employment allows us to draw the following conclusions: the population is moving either to the status of entrepreneur or informal self-employed. The situation is obvious - individuals do not seek to register