04 June 2004 20:48
Govt. expects lower social tax to improve discipline - Zhukov (Part 2)
MOSCOW. June 4 (Interfax) - The government hoped the reduction of unified social tax from 2005 which will make 280
billion rubles available to companies will bolster fiscal discipline, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said at the
Corporate Governance and Economic Growth conference.
He said tax reforms had shown their worth in recent years. Russia
has been collecting 40%-50% more income tax each year since it
"We are hoping that the sharp reduction in social tax will increase transparency and considerably improve
financial and tax discipline," Zhukov said, adding that some companies are still using various gray methods to
avoid paying the tax on their employees' wages.
"We hope that lowering the unified social tax will ultimately
expand the tax-base and that this tax can be levied more fairly from
35.6% to 26%, Zhukov said. "This money can be used to increase both
wages and investments, and in either case this will have a positive
effect on the situation in the economy and on speeding up economic
introduced a flat rate of just 13%.
companies in various sectors of the economy," Zhukov said.
Companies will have an additional 280 billion rubles or about $10 billion at their disposal when the base social tax
rate is lowered from
growth," Zhukov said. [RU ASIA EUROPE EEU EMRG FIN INT] pr
[Interfax] |
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