No income tax scale review in Russia in medium term - Siluanov
ST. PETERSBURG. June 20 (Interfax) - Russia will not be reviewing its income tax scale in the medium term, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters on the sidelines of the St Petersburg Economic Forum.
"Tax policy plans do not provide for this. The task is not to alter it in the medium term," Siluanov said.
"Nowhere do we set a target or timeframe for introducing a progressive income tax scale, but nobody is ruling out this happening some day. The question is when? 2018, 2020, 2025, but this won't be in the medium term," he said.
"The Finance Ministry, the nation's leadership and the president have always said that the flat tax rate would remain for the time being. The low level of the income tax is one of our main achievements, one of the main advantages of the Russian tax system," he said.
"It would make no sense now to say we are going to raise the income tax rate," Siluanov said, recalling that the increase in insurance fees caused a certain amount of salaries to be moved out of the formal economy and "into the shadows."
"The share of the wage pool and the share of revenue collected from it declined somewhat. Then we lowered the rate and are hoping that the process will be restored," he said.
The issue of a fairer income tax scale - that the rich should pay more - is now being addressed via supplementary taxes on property and luxury items.
"Perhaps we will discuss the personal income tax schedule in five years," he said.