The government proposed to raise taxes for Russians who left

The government submitted a bill to the State Duma that would oblige Russian companies to collect 30% personal income tax instead of 13% from payments to Russians who have lost their tax residency in Russia. The bill is published on the Gosduma portal. The amendments, if adopted, will enter into force on January 1, 2024.

According to the draft law, Russians who live abroad for more than six months and have lost their tax residency will pay a higher tax rate when working in Russian companies. The amendments will affect everyone who uses the Russian segment of the Internet or “technical, software and hardware” located in Russia. The innovations will affect both those working under an employment contract and freelancers.

Now personal income tax is levied at the rate of 13% for tax residents of Russia; 15% — for non-residents working in Russia or if the resident’s hourly income exceeds 5 million rubles. All other income of non-resident individuals is taxed at a rate of 30%.

Last summer, the Ministry of Finance of Russia proposed a bill to increase personal income tax to 30% for Russians who left. However, in November, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that he was inclined not to change the status of tax residency for Russians working abroad. In March, an Interfax source claimed that the Finance Ministry had rejected the idea of ​​increasing taxes for Russians working abroad.

Restrictions for Russians who have left the country have been repeatedly discussed in the Russian parliament. At the end of last year, the chairman of Godsuma, Vyacheslav Volodin, reported that the deputies were developing a bill to increase tax rates for Russians who had left.

“It is right to cancel the preferences for those who left the Russian Federation and introduce a higher tax rate for them. That will be fair,” Volodin wrote in a telegram.

Senator Andrey Klyshas proposed to make the stay of Russians abroad “less comfortable”. Klyshas explained that the measures are necessary, first of all, to control the receipt of taxes from citizens who have left Russia.

• After Russia’s attack on Ukraine, and then after the announcement of mobilization, hundreds of thousands of Russians of working age left the country, including businessmen, IT specialists, researchers, doctors and musicians. How many of them remained abroad is not reliably known.