Create favorable conditions for individual business households to confidently pay social insurance

The Law on Social Insurance 2024, effective from July 1, 2025, expands the scope of compulsory social insurance participation to many groups of subjects, including individual business owners. Accordingly, business owners of business households registered under Government regulations are subject to compulsory social insurance participation. This decision is expected to bring many long-term benefits to employees of individual business households, helping them enjoy sick leave, maternity, work-related accidents, occupational diseases, retirement and death benefits.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Dinh Xuan, owner of a grocery store on Ly Thuong Kiet Street, hopes that the State will have a policy to partially support the payment of compulsory social insurance - Photo: TT

As the owner of a grocery business on Ly Thuong Kiet Street, Dong Ha City, for nearly twenty years, Ms. Nguyen Thi Dinh Xuan has not participated in social insurance. With the nature of her job without a pension like a salaried employee, when she learned that small businesses would participate in compulsory social insurance, Ms. Xuan agreed with the general policy, but also had many concerns: "I learned through the press that businesses are required to participate in social insurance from July 1, 2025, and I found it very necessary because it helps us have the rights to pension, maternity, and death benefits. However, we hope that the State will have a policy to partially support and maintain a stable contribution level for a specific period of time to support businesses in the current difficult economic period."

In reality, the number of individual business households participating in voluntary social insurance is not much, there is still a large number that is not interested in social insurance policies. "Recently through research, I found that paying social insurance is firstly because when I am old, I will have a pension, secondly it is also a guarantee for myself, so paying is necessary. We should understand the true meaning of social insurance, not consider it as an amount to pay but consider it as a deduction to save", Ms. Nguyen Thi Thao Ly, owner of a clothing and cosmetics business in Ward 5, Dong Ha City shared.

The social insurance contribution rate is 25% of the income used as the basis for contribution, including 22% to the pension and death fund and 3% to the sickness and maternity fund. This income level is chosen by the household head, but is not lower than the reference level, temporarily equal to the current basic salary of 2,340,000 VND/month. Thus, the lowest social insurance contribution level is 585,000 VND/month, and the highest level can be up to 11.7 million VND/month, if the household head chooses an income level equal to 20 times the basic salary.

Business owners can choose to pay monthly, every 3 months or every 6 months depending on their needs. Compulsory social insurance payment will bring many practical benefits such as pension, maternity and death benefits, helping business owners have more long-term peace of mind. If they do not participate in accordance with regulations, business owners can be administratively fined with a fine of 12% - 20% of the total amount payable, up to a maximum of 75 million VND.

In the immediate future, from July 1, 2025, compulsory social insurance participation will apply to business household owners who have registered to pay taxes by the declaration method. Business household owners who have registered to pay taxes by the lump-sum method will participate in compulsory social insurance from July 1, 2027. Business household owners who have registered to pay taxes not belonging to the above two groups will participate in compulsory social insurance from July 1, 2029.

Along with the consensus, there are still many individual business owners who still have concerns about the mandatory social insurance contribution regulations. The current minimum contribution of 585,000 VND/month is not a small amount for small businesses, especially those with unstable income.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh, owner of a small grocery store in Ward 1, Dong Luong, Dong Ha City, shared: “My store only sells small items, the income is unstable, so with the social insurance contribution of nearly 600,000 VND per month, I am very worried that it will be difficult to maintain the correct and full payment every month.”

To effectively implement the Social Insurance Law 2024, it is necessary to pay attention to propaganda and dissemination of policies to raise awareness and understanding of individual business households. Instead of just announcing regulations, there should be creative and close communication campaigns, using channels such as social networks, local newspapers, radio, television, and even direct meetings at markets and neighborhoods.

The Social Insurance sector and relevant agencies should organize training sessions and small seminars in communities, residential areas, markets, etc. to directly answer questions and provide detailed instructions on procedures, how to calculate contribution and benefit levels. On the other hand, it is necessary to strengthen the simplification of administrative procedures, review and minimize unnecessary documents and procedures in the process of registration, declaration and payment of social insurance.

Thanh Truc

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/tao-dieu-kien-thuan-loi-de-ho-kinh-doanh-ca-the-yen-tam-dong-bao-hiem-xa-hoi-194427.htm