PRESS: Russian government may return unified social tax in 2017

MOSCOW, Jan 21 (PRIME) -- The Russian government may return the unified social tax in 2017, Kommersant business daily reported Thursday citing a government official.

In 2010, the unified social tax was replaced with insurance contributions to state non-budget funds: the pension, social insurance, and mandatory health insurance funds.

Representatives of the government’s social block believe that a return to the unified social tax contradicts principles of the pension system’s operations.

The government is also discussing raising a tax burden on high wages, the daily said.

According to the daily’s calculations, insurance contributions to the three funds may amount to 5.9 trillion rubles, excluding federal budget transfers, or 7.5% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), in 2016.

(79.4614 rubles – U.S. $1)

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