Translated material
Life is a penny
The Tax Service intends to create a unified database on citizens' incomes
The idea of introducing total cost control , voiced so far only in the form of proposals, seems to have a chance to materialize. The Tax Service is trying to take the first step towards this by first taking control of citizens' incomes . The Federal Tax Service (FTS) plans to create a unified federal information resource for information on the income of individuals. For those wishing to participate in the tax amnesty, this may become an additional incentive to complete the declaration payment.The central office of the tax service sent a letter to regional departments, obliging them to transfer information on citizens’ incomes for 2005 to the Federal Tax Service data processing center by March 20. Based on these data, it is planned to begin creating a unified federal information resource for information on the income of individuals.
It is no coincidence that the fiscal authorities pay special attention to income tax: this tax already “weighs” 16% in the volume of tax revenues to the treasury. This is the same amount as VAT contributes to the budget. At the same time, income tax, unlike VAT, is quite simply administered: employers, as tax agents, automatically transfer 13% of employees’ earnings to the treasury, at least from their “white” salary. It is this information about payments to citizens that will be included in the new database. In addition, the database will contain data on those citizens who are required to file a declaration (individual entrepreneurs, lawyers, notaries) or do so voluntarily to receive various deductions. It is planned that subsequently the database will be updated annually with new information. And for each person, in this way, tax officials will be able to collect a dossier on his income.
In part, the new resource may add to the popularity of the tax amnesty that began on March 1, 2007. If the state nevertheless returns to the idea of introducing control over large expenses, having a revenue base, it will be easy to hold accountable those whose expenses significantly exceed their income. With the help of a tax amnesty in this case, you can protect yourself by showing a declaration that large incomes were received a long time ago and were honestly declared.
Compiling such dossiers on their citizens is by no means a Russian know-how; many countries do this. In Sweden and Norway, there have been population registers for several decades, which are used by all government agencies. Russian tax authorities have long had a desire to create their own information databases and registers. In addition to the open access to the unified state register of legal entities and the register of individual entrepreneurs, for several years the fiscal authorities have been trying to compile a nationwide resource of invalid passports, which would help suppress many attempts to create one-day companies using lost passports and passports of deceased people. For more than eight years, fiscal officials have been maintaining a unified state register of taxpayers, which allows them to trace a person’s life from birth to death.
As one of the Federal Tax Service officials recently explained, as soon as a citizen is actually born, he is automatically registered with the tax authorities when he is registered in the registry office or registered in an apartment. “There is no single database of registry offices for the entire country, so when it comes to searching for minors, all government agencies, including the Department of Internal Affairs, turn to us for help,” said a source in the tax service.
If a person was somehow “let through” at the exit from the maternity hospital, in later life he will have no chance of hiding from the tax authorities. The database includes not only all owners of apartments and cars, but also those who have ever received a tax identification number, changed their passport or opened a bank account.
Citizens tend to greatly underestimate the awareness of tax officials. The Unified Register of Income, coupled with the state register of taxpayers, makes it possible not only to trace a person’s entire life from birth to death, but also to get an accurate idea of the quality of that life.