A fitness club is the ideal place to lose weight. Priyshov, having paid in advance - pump steel muscles on simulators with obliging trainers. That "Investigation.Info" explained that sometimes this business still has a dark side, and it is trying to attract it.
"Sport Life". The largest and most popular network of fitness clubs in Ukraine. The founder of the Sport Life group of companies is a Russian businessman with an American passport, Dmitro Yekimov. Advertising, ongoing promotions, and attractive propositions are active - the clubs are constantly growing. According to the remaining data, there are already thirty-two of them. Clients are not rejected, and each person will require respect. Why does “Sport Life” have qualified staff? Only formally... nothing.
The team learned about the internal kitchen of “Sport Life” from a number of personal trainers who worked at the margins. “In the skin club, there are a few more or a few less, but in the middle there are 50-60 individuals. The axle is so gallant. “Five of these people are officially policed,” says one of the many “Sport Life” officers, Oleksandr.
"From what I know, the guys I talk to say it's a similar situation, everything is the same. All over Ukraine, in all the regions, in all the clubs in Kyiv, the situation is the same to one degree or another," adds Bohdan, another coach at Sport Life.
Why is it that the sports industry doesn’t want to legitimize its work with the majority of those who work there? The reason is banal, and an expert explained it to us. Pennies. “The main method of non-compliance with practitioners is the evasion of the payment of taxes, and the Unified Social Contribution itself and the tax from personal income,” said Svetlana, the head of the financial company.
Let's try to get back together. At least 1800 people work at the border. According to the words of the boys, there are about 10% officially practicing there. So, over 1600 people work unofficially. According to Derzhstat data, the average salary in the service sector in Kiev was close to 5000 hryvnia. To tell you the least, the power is irresistible with at least millions of hryvnias in donations.
But still p_bbidi. This scheme allows you to not have to worry less about paying taxes, but to earn more money. In addition to the official fee - for example, for a subscription - clubs offer a whole range of additional services - trainers, massage therapists, etc. You cannot pay for them with a payment card. You only get money for cooking. This is the check that is sometimes shown to clients. It is impossible to find out who to pay and where his money goes.
What the expert told us: “The checks are stored in violation of the official legislation of Ukraine, since the current state of the government’s regulations is mainly regulated in Ukraine by Law 265 “On the establishment of registries of government agencies.” operations." In accordance with this law, a business can carry out operations with cooking, and the preparation itself, by writing an incoming cash order, if the business sells goods of the manufacturing industry, or else he gives services by writing a fiscal check.”
Such a check and the impossibility of making a payment without preparation allows all parties to suspect that the income that goes to the club’s internal cash register is not processed, and this means that it is invisible to the tax authorities, and the taxes are not I'm paying for it. The sportsmen are willing to talk about the system created by the sports industry. Even informal practice means the absence of rights and the threat of abuse.
“We worked there unofficially, and when the wages began to be hampered for more than three months, we could no longer pay for such a penniless situation, which had come before us, setting up a cerivnitsa, so that we were contact the law enforcement agencies,” says Oleksandr.
When information about the spies' attempt to seize their basic rights reached the club, the boys called out the kilim. I honked. “Investigation.Info” has an audio recording of this incident.
— (Tetyana Podrezova, fitness manager assistant at the Sport Life club) How are our employment relationships secured?
— (Olexandr, a great worker at “Sport Life”) In words.
— (Tetyana Podrezova) In words?
- (Olexander) Yes.
- (Tetyana Podrezova) Well, in words, I’m breaking them off with you.
- (Olexandr) Okay, well, then, in the legal field, we’ll figure out why it’s so, why our work is in words, and not otherwise.
The fitness club's press service requested comment on the situation. We had a chance to speak with Dmitry Yekimov, founder of the Sport Life group of companies, by phone, and he told us: "We employ a trainer on duty, a health doctor—those on staff, and the girls at the reception. But people who are entrepreneurs on our premises are personal trainers. Someone who receives 65% of their income cannot be an employee. Correct? They are sole proprietors. They are individuals who, based on contractual agreements, are allowed to provide personal training to our clients."
Well, the founder of the Sport Life group of companies insists that all the personal trainers who work for him in the clubs are FOPs, but neither Oleksandr nor Bohdan were other employees. Moreover, no new contracts were signed with the club. “Investigation.Info” has an overflow of “Sport Life” practitioners. An analysis of the first fifty personal trainers on the list revealed that there is only one registered FOP.
Information about non-payment of taxes, unofficial procedures, audio recordings - would be provided, and all warehouses for productive investigation by tax and law enforcement agencies. But after the first re-verification, which clearly revealed the damage, the process slowed down. Why?
Before “Investigation.info”, having searched for a recording, a detective from the prosecutor’s office reveals a clear reason for the increased pace of investigation: “There are greater forces already, and the city prosecutor’s office, who are above us, and for them pawns Generala, Pechersk, where the administration of Ikhnya is located. They've already gotten rid of the stink. The stench is everywhere in all the Lankas now.”
Moreover, according to Oleksandr’s words, they were trying to get in touch with the representative of “Sport Life” simply at the local prosecutor’s office - so that justice would be done amicably. What did you say about that episode: “Let’s go. We go to the deputy’s office, and I, as if to say, that from, you understand. You have such a fold on the right. You have little evidence, you won’t be able to prove anything. In a word, a representative of “Sport Life” arrived immediately. Let’s just have a home there.”
We asked Dmitry Yekimov that he knows about this incident. The statement was categorical: “If you have such a re-recording, then submit it to the prosecutor’s office and initiate a criminal case.”
It is noteworthy that the Sport Life organization is not afraid of control and law enforcement agencies. There are two options. However, Dmitro Yekimov does not fully understand what is going on in his clubs, but he believes that hopefully people will help him get away with it in the future.
Oleksandr Gumenyuk Hromadske.TV
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