Lawyer Dmitry Grigoriev outlined how some well known Russian bloggers manage their income in ways that avoid paying taxes and warned about the possible penalties, including jail time, should this approach be proven fraudulent. The insights come from a leading legal voice quoted by a major newspaper, underscoring the growing scrutiny of online money from influential creators.
According to Grigoriev, a number of bloggers who report incomes running into the hundreds of millions of rubles set up multiple small companies. In these structures, they often employ simplified tax regimes that allow profits to be divided among several entities, significantly reducing the overall tax burden. This arrangement can enable large cash flows to pass through a network of firms without the proper tax contributions being made to the state.
He explained that registering without value added tax can, in some cases, cut tax outlays by as much as 18 percent of the income. The practice relies on the assumption that VAT in these transactions is not applied to all layers of the business model, creating a sizeable gap between revenue and tax obligations, which should rightly be paid to public coffers.
The warning from the expert centered on the criminal liability attached to such schemes. When the use of multiple shells and tax allowances is deemed solely to evade payment, it crosses into illegal territory and can trigger prosecution that includes imprisonment, asset freezes, and other punitive measures. The legal risks escalate when the structure masks real economic activity, hides true beneficiaries, or misrepresents transactional pricing among associated firms.
In his assessment, the blogger economy in question generates substantial turnover. The profits and cash flows involved are described as very large, highlighting why tax authorities remain vigilant. The scale of such operations makes the issue headline material, prompting calls for clearer standards, more effective enforcement, and safer avenues for legitimate content monetization that do not undermine public revenue streams.
Meanwhile, the Russian government moved to tighten the tax framework in November by finalizing a draft law aimed at amending the Tax Code. The proposed changes target a variety of evasion tactics, with particular focus on pricing controls in intercompany transactions. The objective is to reduce the room for maneuver that allows inflated or artificial pricing to erode tax bases and create leakage in the fiscal system.
Previously, agencies responsible for financial intelligence, tax collection, and monetary oversight signaled a coordinated effort to close loopholes in a well-known scheme labeled the “Restaurant” model. Reported estimates of the scheme suggested annual evasion of hundreds of billions of rubles, underscoring the scale of the problem and the urgency in aligning tax rules with modern business practices. This exposed a broader pattern of how complex corporate networks can influence tax outcomes and what that means for compliance cultures in a changing regulatory landscape.