• Pension contributions will be as follows

• Archive income books

• Some still have time, and some do not

• Upholstered furniture inboxes

• Plastic waste two residents – and there will be a bench

1. The Ministry of Social Policy reported what additional burden will be placed on employers and their employees after the introduction of the accumulative pension.

“The system will work like this: a person pays 2% of the salary to his account in the selected pension fund, the employer will add another 2%, so it will be 4%. Contributions will not be burdensome for workers. In the future, contributions must be increased to at least 7%. In order to avoid an increase in the burden on employers, the state is considering redistributing contributions within the current single social contribution, “said Minister of Social Policy Maryna Lazebna.

Earlier it was reported that in Ukraine may increase the single social contribution. This will happen if the second level of pension – accumulative – does not work in the near future.

2. The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has simplified the conduct of cash transactions in the national currency by individual entrepreneurs. Mandatory income bookkeeping is abolished from January 1, 2021.

This applies to self-employed persons of the first and second groups and self-employed persons of the third group who are not value-added taxpayers. Such natural persons-entrepreneurs may keep records in any form (paper or electronic), reflecting the monthly income.

3. More than 261,000 people applied for quarantine support in the form of one-time assistance of UAH 8,000 in five days through the state service Diya. Employees and sole proprietors, whose activities are prohibited during the period of increased quarantine in January, can still apply for assistance from 14 to 31 December.

But a package of documents from entrepreneurs who use the labour of employees for the payment of one-time financial assistance due to the possibility of losing income through quarantine, from today is no longer accepted. This applies to entrepreneurs whose main type of economic activity is not included in the List of types of economic activity for which restrictive anti-epidemic measures are implemented, defined by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.  

4. Upholstered furniture in boxes has become a real find for modern city dwellers living in small apartments: they are delivered to the buyer in disassembled form, compactly packed in several boxes that can be sent by mail – with the delivery of such a sofa will not be a problem.

London-based startup Swyft has gone a step further and simplified for its customers not only the delivery of upholstered furniture but also its assembly: sofas and armchairs can be assembled by one person, without any tools. Instead of screws, bolts and ties, for the installation of which you need screwdrivers and hex keys, the company offers a fastening system of its own design Swyft-Lok. The system consists of two elements that are interconnected and held by gravity and friction.

5. Every resident of Amsterdam creates 23 kg of plastic waste per year. And if the waste of three citizens is recycled, it is possible to create a large universal park bench from them. And this is just the beginning, say the creators of the project “The New Raw”.

The idea is very simple: do not dispose of plastic waste, and immediately grind them into large granules, then extrusion to print on a 3D printer for urban infrastructure everything you need – benches, fences, curbs, poles, flower pots, decorative and functional elements. If you do not skimp and spend 50 kg of plastic on one product, it will be no less durable than wood.

The highlight of the project is not just to recycle plastic, but to create a short scheme of waste recycling, which is fully implemented within one city. It is not necessary to carry waste over long distances and immediately begin processing.