29 March 2024, Friday, 10:15
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Authorities choose not to impose “wealth tax”

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Authorities choose not to impose “wealth tax”

There are no plans to return progressive taxation in Belarus.

The statement was made by Uladzimir Paluyan, the minister of taxes and duties, during the online conference hosted by the BelTA website.

Answering the question if there are grounds to impose a progressive tax in Belarus, the minister recalled that a flat-rate tax of 12% was introduced on January 1, 2009, instead of progressive income tax (from 9% to 30%) to reform the taxation system and simplify tax administration. The step reduced the sphere of annual income declaration.

The flat tax allowed reducing grey incomes and increasing revenues from income tax and its share in the budget revenues. The share of income tax (20.2%) in the revenues for the budget controlled by taxation authorities was preceded only by revenues from VAT.

Belarus's partners in the Customs Union, Russia and Kazakhstan, do not have progressive tax either, so imposing a wealth tax in the country can provoke labour outflow from Belarus to other CU members, Uladzimir Paluyan says.

“The Ministry does not plan to impose a progressive income tax and the so called wealth tax taking into account numerous factors, the intention to keep the growing share of income tax in the budget revenues from income tax and prevention of the outflow of capital into shadow economy,” the minister summed up.

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