Businesses to contribute to Russia's budget from past profits via tax mechanism - minister

MOSCOW. Feb 17 (Interfax) - The additional levy that Russia plans to collect from large businesses' past windfall profits will be implemented through a tax measure, not in the form of a "voluntary contribution," which companies do not want.

"We are actually actively discussing [this] with businesses right now. We've agreed that special amendments to tax legislation will be prepared and probably this contribution will be in the form of levies on businesses on part of the growth of the financial result for recent years," Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in an interview on TV channel Rossiya24.

Last week, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said that the authorities are discussing with businesses a one-time voluntary contribution to the budget from profits earned in 2022. This is not about raising taxes, but about paying in the "windfall tax" format, he said.

The head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Alexander Shokhin tentatively estimated the potential payment at around 200 billion-250 billion rubles. A "voluntary contribution" would be complicated by corporate procedures, so businesses would prefer payments through tax tools, Shokhin said.