On February 14, 2025, an experiment was launched to provide software developers with the opportunity to voluntarily confirm competencies. 

Legislative fixing of the experiment

In February 2025, the Government of the Russian Federation adopted Resolution No. 130 dated 11.02.2025 (hereinafter – «Resolution No. 130»), which legislated the mechanism of the experiment to provide software developers with the opportunity to voluntarily confirm competencies. 

In accordance with this Resolution:

- The term of the experiment is from February 14, 2025 to December 31, 2026.

- The coordinator of the experiment is the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation (hereinafter – «Mincifry Russia»).

Resolution No. 130 does not directly mention the platform and the form of testing of IT specialists, but there is an indication regarding the selection of operators of the IT competence validation platform.

Thus, according to clause 8 of Resolution No. 130, any organization has the right to offer its own services as an operator of the platform on which IT specialists will be tested. After receiving the relevant proposals from potential platform operators, the Ministry of Digital Development of Russia will submit the candidates to the Presidium of the Government Commission on Digital Development, Use of Information Technologies to Improve the Quality of Life and Business Environment, which will select the best candidate by February 28, 2025. Additionally, it should be noted that no remuneration is provided for the platform operators.

In fact, in accordance with clause 10 of Resolution No. 130, software developers will have the opportunity to undergo testing from May 31, 2025. Before this period, preparations will be made for the stable operation of the platform where the experimental testing will take place.

How the experiment will be conducted 

The essence of the experiment is to provide professionals with a free tool to test their own level of mastery of various IT-competencies. This is a digital platform, using which IT specialists will be able to take tests and perform practical tasks. In addition, the legislator highlights another important purpose of the experiment, namely, to obtain information about the number of software developers with confirmed IT-competencies, taking into account their demand in the labor market in the Russian Federation.

Those who have passed the test will receive a certificate confirming their knowledge and skills. This document will be sent to the personal account on the Gosuslugi portal. Its validity period will be one year.

Prospects for the development of this area

According to experts, in the current situation there is an ambiguous situation of a certain professional imbalance in the possession of IT-competencies by various specialized employees.

Based on the results of the experiment, the relevant specialized bodies will be able to draw conclusions by summarizing the statistics on successful passing of the test, as well as business representatives regarding the staff composition of IT-companies.

It can be assumed that in case of a positive realization of this experiment, such an initiative can be subsequently introduced as mandatory for all IT-companies. For the state such a form of testing of IT-specialists may become a tool for checking the «quality» of IT-company employees and whether they have sufficient competencies to carry out specialized activities. At the same time, it is not excluded that in practice negative test results may be used by tax authorities as an additional circumstance proving the lack of reality of IT-services rendered. 

In addition, the presence of positive certificates of testing of IT-company employees may later be considered by the Government of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Finance as one of the additional mandatory conditions for IT-companies to obtain state accreditation.

Our team will continue to follow the implementation of this experiment and its impact on the taxation of the industry.