Putin reaches for cash with new taxes on miners and savers as war spending swells Russia’s deficit to $72 billion
Source: Fortune ·
The government proposes a 20%-30% windfall profits tax on mining companies that have benefited from prices that have risen since last year.
From the source
With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine straining on state finances, President Vladimir Putin is reaching for cash to fund his government and the war, squeezing tax revenue from an economy that’s increasingly skewed toward the military — while civilian needs take a back seat. The country’s 2027-2029 state budget, which was approved Thursday in the rubber-stamp parliament on the first of three votes, is accompanied by a string of tax hikes announced after the September parliamentary elections. While last year the Kremlin went for a broad tax increase, raising value-added taxes at the cash register and making more small businesses pay VAT, this cash grab hits a narrower segment: mining companies and better-off citizens with investment income, property sales and bank accounts. The budget deficit this year has swelled beyond forecast s due to lavish military spending and tepid economic growth amid sanctions, high interest rates for non-military companies, labor shortages and Ukrainian strikes…