Russia's Tax Reform Could Take Up To Three Years

by Tatiana Smolensky, Tax-News.com, Moscow

29 November 2001

According to a report from Russian news agency Pravda, the Deputy Minister for Economic Development and Trade, Arkady Dvorkovich has claimed that it could take between 2 to 3 more years before the government's tax reform programme is completed.

Addressing a conference of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs on tax reform issues, Dvorkovich declared that one of the major components of the reforms was to reduce the tax burden including the possibility of lowering the maximum rate of a single social tax from 35 to 25 per cent.

Dvorkovich said the current average tax burden represented around 45 to 55 per cent of income but this will be lowered to 40 per cent by next year.

The government is also mulling over reducing the VAT rate and the issues that could take another 2 to 3 years to resolve include: the introduction of property taxes; the development of a small business taxation system; and a Tax Code chapter on state duty.

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