It was a first penknife at the single tax rate of 13% of which Russia was proud. Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday June 23 in a televised address that income above 5 million rubles (64,240 euros at the current rate) will be taxed at 15% from 2021. He has also extended aid and subsidies to the most affected by the economic crisis.

This high-income tax also comes a week before a constitutional referendum to allow him to stay in power beyond 2024. The president warned of the economic consequences of the pandemic, calling them "a serious challenge for Russia ".

"A global recession has started, a fall in the world economy, the consequences and depth of which remain to be established," he said.  

Russia "saved tens of thousands of lives"

But the president also praised Russia's performance in the face of the epidemic: by quickly closing the borders, the country "saved precious time" and "saved tens of thousands of lives," said Vladimir Putin. , stating that 17 million tests of the Covid-19 had been carried out. The country recorded, as of June 23, 599,705 cases and 8,359 deaths from the coronavirus.

The country explained its low mortality figures, compared to Western countries, by the fact that it only counted deaths whose primary cause, after autopsy, is the coronavirus.

The country said at the end of May that it would revise its counting methods following the recommendations of the World Health Organization, which is calling for accounting for ancillary causes or suspect cases. The Russian authorities also maintain that the epidemic having arrived later in Russia, the country had time to prepare its hospitals and to develop a massive policy of detection.

"Restoring the labor market in 2021"

Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday new subsidies and assistance to families and businesses hit by the economic consequences of the pandemic. Faced with rising unemployment, he also instructed the authorities to "take all necessary measures to fully restore the labor market in 2021", bringing unemployment back to its pre-crisis level.

Income tax reform, which is one of the main sources of funding for the federal budget, is expected to bring in an additional 60 billion rubles, the president said, adding that the money would be used to treat children with rare diseases .

The single income tax, introduced in 2001, was one of the key reforms of Vladimir Putin's first term. Its modification has been approached regularly for several years, the hypothesis of erasing or lowering it for low income having been raised.

The introduction of the single tax "has brought wages and income out of the shadows, simplified and made understandable the tax administration," said the president.

But with "the new quality of administration, the introduction of digital technologies, it has become possible to distribute the tax burden in a more differentiated manner," he added.

With AFP

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