Alexander Shokhin, President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs declaration RIA Novosti reported that the business community and the authorities have agreed on a mandatory one-time payment to the budget.
“We agreed that this would be a mandatory payment – an unexpected tax-like – a “wind-inspired” tax, its appearance associated with a unique combination of favorable working conditions for companies and a range of circumstances. sectors that make it possible to achieve financial results,
– said the head of the RSPP Shokhin.
In early February, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Andrei Belousov said that the government, together with the business community, developed the issue of one-time voluntary contributions from large enterprises in 2023, noting the high financial performance of a number of enterprises.
Shokhin noted that it is still unclear how to count this “surplus income”, which “is not actually a lot of income. In addition, the question of calculating the financial indicators of companies subject to accounting for the payment of this fee and how it will be collected this year, not next year, remains.
“A lump sum payment can be made in the form of a kind of advance payment. “My view is it’s probably right to introduce an advance mechanism, but this early payment should be encouraged by some sort of discount for companies.”
Detail
Earlier on February 21, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters that the voluntary contribution is planned to be collected this year.
We are talking about a one-time business participation in the current year.”
The minister also noted that the payment will be made only from the unexpected profits of the companies. “We will only talk about what the business can pay from the increase. We will compare the increase in 2022 and 2021 financial results with 2020 and 2019.”
“There are issues with subtracting capital investments from this volume, but these are still being worked out,” Siluanov said.
On February 17, the minister said that payments from work should bring about 300 billion rubles to the budget.
According to him, the measure will be realized through changes in tax legislation. Thus, Siluanov noted, the business community will “participate in financing, in fact government programs.” Therefore, it is expected that about 300 billion rubles will go to the treasury.
The oil and gas sector and small business fees will not be affected.
“I will say right away that we are not considering the involvement of small businesses, as well as the oil and gas sector. From where? “Because we have recently adopted a number of tax innovations in the oil and gas industry that have already centralized some of the additional rent that this industry receives as a result of the price situation.”
According to Siluanov, “business is ready to share some of the growth with the state.”
Also on February 17, the Kremlin commented on the initiative. Journalists asked presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov how the Kremlin would treat a company that did not want to contribute.
“The keyword is ‘volunteer’ but of course the interaction between country leadership and business, government and business is a two-way street. So here, of course, although we are all on the same side, both sides need to be clearly aware of the realities we live in and the needs of the country right now. replied.
where did the collection come from
The idea of a one-time tax collection for businesses was voiced by Deputy Prime Minister Belousov on February 8. He then emphasized that the initiative is not a tool to increase taxes. He did not specify the amount of the fee.
Prior to that, The Bell (the organization was included in the list of foreign agents by the Justice Department) reported that the government had offered businesses a one-time payment of 200-TL to the budget, citing sources. 250 billion rubles. Instead, the business community proposed increasing the income tax by 0.5 percentage points (pp) to 20.5% for 2023.
“Last year’s financial results were very good and for many companies, the results were extremely positive in the first three quarters, especially in the first half of the year,” Belousov said.
On February 6, the Ministry of Finance announced that the federal budget deficit in January 2023 was 1.76 trillion rubles. Advance financing for some contractual expenses, including accelerated VAT refunds, sharp increase in costs due to expedited contracts, and public procurement expenses, showed a record deficit at the beginning of the year. The budget law foresees a deficit of 2.93 trillion rubles for 2023.
Russia closed 2022 with a budget deficit of 3.35 trillion rubles. (2.3% of GDP). The largest deficit in the country’s history was 4.1 trillion rubles in 2020 alone, when the coronavirus restrictions seriously worsened the economic situation.