The President Of Russia has backed the suggestions of The Russian Chamber Of Commerce and Industry developed together with Pepeliaev Group's experts regarding the regulation of various payments similar to taxes and levies

The Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry commissioned Pepeliaev Group to analyse various payments which are similar to taxes and levies but are not included in the Russian Tax Code. These payments are collected in the most diverse industries and increase the real burden for businesses to finance their public commitments. It actually means that a parallel tax system is created. The amount of such payments already exceeds RUB 700 billion (1% of GDP). One of the most recent examples is the charge on 12-ton trucks, which sparked a massive public outcry.

The work completed is aimed at normalising such payments, i.e. at regulating them in a systematic manner. To implement this, several directions for improving legal regulation have been suggested.

Firstly, a single exhaustive list (register) of all mandatory public payments is needed. This is necessary to provide a realistic and accurate assessment of the burden that such payments represent for business, what they cost to administer, the level to which they are collected and their useful effect.

The results of the study were presented to the professional community at the workshop "Taxes of a non-tax nature: A systemic approach" which took place on 4 December 2015 within the framework of the XI All-Russian Tax Forum of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (see the recommendations given at the workshop at http://nalogoved.ru/news/3519).

The study demonstrated that developed foreign countries also face the same problems with collecting public payments. At the same time, Pepeliaev Group's managing partner, Sergey Pepeliaev, believes that this may not be treated as a justification for the current situation: "The aim of the proposed measures is to build up in Russia the world's best practice of collecting mandatory public payments". Vadim Zaripov, head of Pepeliaev Group's analytical department, agrees with this: "The regulation of payments which are similar to taxes and levies may essentially become the second significant step in the country's tax reform, some kind of 'tax reform 2.0'. If the suggested measures are implemented as they were conceived, this will not only help broaden the economic freedoms of Russian entrepreneurs in the context of external sanctions; it will also ensure that socially important goals are properly financed". Per Popov, a senior associate at Pepeliaev Group, who participated in the preparation of the study, points out that "public payments which are not included in the Russian Tax Code, are not only similar to taxes and levies; they indeed are taxes and levies without being referred to as such in legislation. They are said to have a non-tax nature by convention, just because they are not set out in the Tax Code".