Do Russians Now Favor Heavier Taxes on Those with Higher Incomes?

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 29 – Vladimir Putin’s signing into law a small additional tax on those making more than five million rubles (70,000 US dollars) is supported by two-thirds of all Russians, certainly a reflection of the propensity of many of them to support whatever the Kremlin does but possibly also a sign some are ready to tax the better off more heavily.

            For most of the post-Soviet period, Russians have favored a flat tax on all incomes, an arrangement that has allowed those at the top of the income pyramid to do far better even as it has cost the state the resources it would need to be able to address the problems of those further down.

            But the pandemic has changed attitudes, and a new survey by the SuperJob service finds that Russians, especially older Russians, now support raising taxes on the rich in order to maintain or improve services for everyone else. Many higher income Russians also support raising taxes on themselves (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/82064).

            Those who oppose the boost in taxes on the better off argue that such taxes will hit not only corporate managers and industrial titans but those who work in professions, such as airline passengers, where such pay compensates both for the additional training such jobs require and the greater risks they entail.

            But in one indication that more Russians are ready to support higher taxes on the better off is this: some of those SuperJob spoke with suggested that the Kremlin action was clearly designed to deceive the people that the powers were now doing something real. After all, these respondents said, Putin’s new tax is small and affects fewer than one Russian in 100.