Putin's War Will Soon Reach Russians' Tax Bills

[applegrove]

Last edited Sat Apr 27, 2024, 01:14 AM - Edit history (1)

Putin’s War Will Soon Reach Russians’ Tax Bills
Russia’s president has signaled an increase in income and corporate taxes that will help finance the war. The move reflects his firm control over Russian policy

By Paul Sonne
Reporting from Berlin

April 27, 2024, 12:01 a.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/27/world/europe/russia-taxes-ukraine-war-putin.html

"SNIP...........

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is about to institute a rare tax increase on corporations and high earners, a move that reflects both the burgeoning costs of his war in Ukraine and the firm control he has over the Russian elite as he embarks on a fifth term in office.

Financial technocrats in Mr. Putin’s government are searching for new ways to fund not just an expensive war in Ukraine but also a broader confrontation with the West that is likely to remain costly for years. Russia is allocating nearly a third of its overall 2024 budget to national defense spending this year, a huge increase, adding to a deficit that the Kremlin has taken pains to keep in check.

The proposed tax increase underscores Mr. Putin’s rising confidence about his political control over the Russian elite and his country’s economic resilience at home, showing that he is willing to risk alienating parts of society to fund the war. It would represent the first major tax overhaul in over a decade.

“I think that this is a real sign of how comfortable he is,” said Richard Connolly, an expert on the Russian economy at Oxford Analytica, a strategic analysis firm. “The fact that they are doing it — they are looking to repair the house whilst the weather is good, or at least reinforce the walls from a fiscal point of view.”

................SNIP"

Applegrove:

I wonder how pleased the oligarchs will be when the US starts to give oligarchs money, frozen in the US, to Ukraine as is allowed in the recently passed Ukraine aid bill?

[TheBlackAdder]

1. Does that mean mothers will have to give back a percentage of the cabbages they got for sending their sons to die?

[applegrove]

2. I had not heard that. I think this tax is on those who

are better off, not those who had to send their sons to the war.

From the article:

"SNIP............

A tax that largely spares lower-income earners could also help mute discontent over the war among poorer Russians, who are providing much of the manpower for the army and bearing the brunt of the casualties. Mr. Putin has signaled that the tax overhaul will include special incentives for certain groups, which could include Russians directly involved in the war effort or families with three or more children.

.............SNIP"

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/27/world/europe/russia-taxes-ukraine-war-putin.html

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Things have changed in Russia. The oligarchs of the Yeltsin years have been stripped of their assets ...

... and sometimes their lives or freedom. The only people who control wealth in Russia now are Putin's minions, and their "wealth" is regarded as state property which Putin can call on at any time. No one owns anything -- they are only temporary stewards by permission of the Kremlin.

[applegrove]

4. Very creepy. I thought some oligarchs were showing

signs of independence..... why so any have been thrown out windows.