Abstract
A lot of the business learning a self-employed must do is actually unlearning many old husbands’ tales that are so often told to unsuspecting indies. Take, for instance, all the dire warnings and urgings to feel sorry for yourself because you are being shafted by the tax code. Oh, big, bad government — does not it give all the tax breaks to national corporations and employees! Moreover, poor little indie gets nothing but headaches and high taxes. Well, right now, as your New Year’s Resolution, throw out those old-fashioned ideas. Take charge. Learn. Pay less tax! Sure, the tax code is written for corporations and employees, not for you, a self-employed. Of course the big boys get advantages that are out of bounds for you. However, in a dynamically developing modern economy, self-employment has its advantages. The aim of the study is to identify criteria that allow defining self-employment among other types of employment, determining the status of self-employment in the national economy, disclosing forms of self-employment, and considering the factors and characteristics of the formation of self-employment in the modern economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The researchers propose a methodological approach to the definition of the self-employment concept.