Putin Announces Tax Package For Small Businesses

by Tatiana Smolenskaya, Tax-News.com, Moscow

26 March 2010

Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, has set out a new plan for an additional RUB13bn (USD441m) of support for small business owners in a speech at an innovation forum.

Putin said this support would be added to the RUB10bn budget already allocated to small- and medium-sized businesses and the new money would come from the anti-crisis fund.

The package included loans for high-tech companies and a government commitment to spend at least RUB5bn on goods and services from small- and medium-sized businesses. There would also be support for exports of high-tech products, he said. To reduce bureaucracy, Putin announced that the government would do away with the five-yearly requirement for businesses to extend their licenses.

Putin also mentioned property-tax breaks of up to three years for technological investment in energy efficiency, lifting income tax on health care and education businesses, and the extension of the preferential privatization of real estate scheme for small business by a further three years together with associated Value-added tax exemptions.

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