Official: Russian Fin Ministry sees sales tax as thing of past

MOSCOW, Mar 21 (PRIME) -- The Russian Finance Ministry is not discussing introduction of a sales tax because this idea is outdated, Deputy Minister Ilya Trunin told reporters on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, business daily Vedomosti reported that the government is discussing the introduction of a 2–3% sales tax to avoid raising value-added-tax (VAT) as proposed by the Finance Ministry.

Trunin said, “We have not discussed the sales tax because the sales tax is a thing of the past indeed … There will be many ideas until next year, which is why you should not be surprised: we will discuss tax reforms all year long in 2017.”

He also said that a tax on retail revenue is discussed to replenish municipal budgets and to make local authorities more interested in retail control.

Earlier in March, the Finance Ministry offered to introduce a 22% rate for the payroll tax and VAT, now at 30% and 18%, respectively, to make formal employment more competitive, while not raising the budget burden.

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