Ukraine: Do we live luxuriously?

Active discussion of the issue of luxury tax makes you turn to the experience of other countries. So, the Government of Ukraine promises to engage in social justice. Presented by Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Tigipko in the Ministry of Social Policy and Labor the bill “On Amending the Tax Code of Ukraine regarding the introduction of a wealth tax” should annually, by 2017, bring 800 million hryvnias (approximately $ 998.5 million ). We publish an article by Marina Shcherbakova ( “Polit.ua” on this subject).

The topic of introduction of luxury tax in Ukraine has been discussed for the past few years. The Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine has passed to specific steps by developing a bill “On Amending the Tax Code of Ukraine regarding the introduction of wealth tax”. Until 2017, individuals, both residents and non -residents who own movable and immovable property in Ukraine, and buyers of expensive goods will pay a new tax. According to the Minister of Social Policy, the luxury tax will be paid exclusively by individuals. Its item is an operation from the purchase of expensive goods. Sergey Tigipko considers expensive cars, planes, motorcycles, yachts, large houses, large personal plots, watches, we dressed that there are more than 2 thousand euros. The money received is offered to be sent to the Pension Fund.

The Cabinet of Ministers initiates the introduction of differentiated taxation of individuals. Individuals with income of up to 10 minimum salaries will pay income tax at a rate of 15%, and with incomes over 10 minimum salaries - 17% (the minimum salary in Ukraine is 922 UAH (100 UAH - $ 125 at the rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for February 29, 2012), as of January 1, 2012 it will be 1,073 UAH.). For reference: according to the State Tax Service, in Ukraine there are over 6.6 thousand millionaires.

In addition, the Cabinet of Ministers initiates the introduction of a tax of 5% on income received by individuals from deposits in banks, with a deposit amount from 200 thousand UAH. According to Nikolai Azarov, most citizens are over 90%, whose savings have not reached this amount, will not pay such a tax.

It is planned to introduce a tax on real estate. The area of ​​apartments that will be taxed starts with 200 square meters, houses - from 400 square meters. The tax rate is 2% of the minimum wage per square meter. Differentiated tax is proposed to land plots depending on the purpose of the Earth and the location. Tax will be taxed in household plots with an area of ​​0.75 hectares in villages, 0.45 hectares - in villages, 0.3 hectares in cities.

Of the areas for individual summer cottages, they will only be taxed if their area exceeds 0.3 hectares, from plots for horticulture - 0.36 hectares (if they are located on a residential, country or garden house with an area of ​​over 600 square meters). Over 0.5 hectares, 5% of the standard assessment of the plot or 25% of the land estimate in the region will need to be paid from the land of non -surpassive purposes.

The fees are promised to impose luxury items, high salaries, real estate and transport. In the latest category there are private yachts, aircraft, motorcycles of the engine volume of more than 800 cubic meters. cm and cars with a volume of more than 3.4 thousand cubic meters.

Cars will be taxed 20% of the minimum salary for every 100 cubic meters. cm if the consumption of their engines exceeds 3 400 cubic meters. cm, motorcycles - from a volume of over 800 cube. See thus, many models of Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW, Lexus, Infinity and premium Bentley, Maserati, Ferrari automatically fall under increased tax.

The initiative of the Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Tigipko to tax expensive cars so much that the authorities liked it so much that they have already decided to revise it, of course, towards a decrease in the threshold of what is considered wealth.

To attract owners of owners of models such as Infiniti, Lexus, Porsche.

“The share of cars falling under taxation does not exceed 1.5% of the total number of cars in the country,” said Mr. Tigipko.

So that the tax does not touch the old machines, a reduction coefficient to the tax rate, which is 20% mz for every 100 cubic meters, will be used. cm.

Depending on the period of use of the car, the coefficient will be from 1 (new and up to 5 years) to 0.2 (over 15 years). “The engine volume expands the taxation base. We specifically studied that the standard “Volga” issues of 1974-1976 have an engine volume of 2.4 thousand cubic meters. See, and released later - 2.6 thousand cubic meters. cm, so grandfathers may not worry.

Currently in Ukraine there are 8 million cars, about 9.5 thousand of them are subject to taxation with a new tax. The older Avtivka, the less you will have to pay for it, and after seven years of using the tax there will be no tax at all. Owners of aircraft and helicopters will pay 0.2% of the minimum salary per 1 kg of weight, and the tax for water vessels in 20% of the minimum salary will be required to engine power. The Cabinet of Ministers agreed to bring tugs, barges and fishing vessels out of taxation.

Only the owners of yachts and other ships for leisure or sports will pay tax. From January 1, you will also have to pay taxes for the use of valuable things. Of course, if the deputies support the bill developed in the Ministry of Social Policy. When buying hours, phones, weapons, jewelry, from precious metals worth more than 2 thousand euros, as well as shoes, clothing, furs, antiques at a price of 3 thousand euros, it will be necessary to pay 10% of their cost for a month.

The same bet will be additionally paid when importing goods to Ukraine by an individual.

Sellers, that is, shops, will pay tax on objects of luxury. Moreover, they must transfer funds until the 20th day of each month. Real estate tax and vehicles will have to pay the property owners themselves until September 1 of the year following the reporting one. The Ministry of Social Policy expects that as a result of the introduction of these initiatives, the budget will additionally receive almost 810 million UAH. For a year. The lion's share will be brought by a car (593.95 million UAH), real estate (102.53 million UAH) and land plots (50 million UAH).

Many experts call the bill of populist, since there is a legal opportunity to evade the payment of a new tax. The tax payer may be exclusively an individual. Therefore, in order to avoid luxury tax, it will be enough to apply for a company. Most rich citizens have expensive cars on the balance sheet of their companies and enterprises. It is also quite difficult to introduce tax on expensive goods.

If the rate of this tax is low, this will not cover the expenses for its administration, and if very high, people can just as successfully buy expensive things abroad. And the earth can be crushed into areas of less than 0.5 hectares, registering them on several persons.

The introduction of a rate of 20% on income that exceed 15 minimum salaries will not lead to an increase in tax cargo on the rich. It is enough to look at the tax returns of most non -poor people - they show meager income.

In addition, non -poor Ukrainians have long learned to keep their states in offshores. Therefore, the law, most likely, will affect not so much rich as those who work openly and do not hide “in the shadow”.

Attempts to strengthen the tax burden on the rich were made in many countries. In the early 1990s, federal luxury taxes were introduced in the United States-when buying jewelry, fur, yachts and private aircraft. However, they lasted only three years, since they did not give the expected fiscal effect. The Americans increasingly began to make purchases abroad, which was reflected in local business. The tax on cars was levied for the longest, more than $ 40 thousand, however, it was abolished in 2003.

In Europe, the “luxurious” tax was distributed on the island of the rich - Sardinia. Since 2006, they were taxed by yachts and private planes, and an average of 20 thousand euros were received from the budget of this Italian island from each owner of the yacht. True, as in the United States, the tax was liquidated in three years - the oligarchs turned out to be more cunning, parking ships and aircraft away from the island.

Meanwhile, there are countries where wealth tax continues to work. In France, citizens who have ownership in the amount of over 720 thousand euros pay 0.55-1.8% of the declared amount of property annually. In September 2011, she introduced a luxury tax for the next two years and Spain, which hopes with its help to solve at least part of its budget problems. This tax will affect almost 160 thousand people whose conditions exceed 700 thousand euros.

Little will be received from the tax on the luxury of the budget, experts say, because the introduction of luxury taxation is possible only in those countries where not only income, but also population expenses are strictly declared. Where you can find out who belongs to the other yacht Lee or a suburban estate. Otherwise, the business from the sale of luxurious things will simply go “into the shadow”.

Submarine stones of the law. The opinions of experts

"The bill regarding the taxation of the rich is difficult and inappropriate to implement." This opinion UBR.UA was expressed by the senior consultant to the Institute of Strategic Research Alexei Moldovan. Firstly, the law will not find support in the Verkhovna Rada, the analyst says. “Resistance to the bill will be provided by the people's deputies themselves,” he believes. “In general, this law is not the best idea, because there are simpler and more effective ways to collect taxes from the rich.”

In particular, in Europe, an increased VAT rate is used. Considering that VAT technology is already configured, there will be no problems to implement the innovation. They make a discount on social significance, and a 25 percent rate is introduced for luxury goods. This practice does not need significant resources for implementation and is organizationally simple.

Starting next year, deputies can not introduce this law, even if they vote for it. “The Budget Code provides that all laws that affect the revenue or expenditure parts of the budget must be released before August 15,” Moldova explains. - In addition, the law on luxury tax is not fiscally effective. It will be difficult to realize, and the figure about which they talk about - 800 million UAH. Every year, as for me, it is somewhat overstated. Even if we assume that this tax will give receipts, which are counting on, do not forget that it needs quite large investments - organizational and monetary.

The “luxury tax”, which offers Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Tigipko, is unlikely to affect the richest segments of the population of Ukraine. This opinion was expressed by the taxmate of the international audit company Nikolai Matyukh on the air of the first business channel.

“Who will pay if they supposedly have“ nothing ”? They are not "owners." And to prove that they are constant users of this property will not be easy, the term itself is not registered in the Tax Code. For example, a permanent user of a helicopter is rather a pilot than the one who sits behind him, ”he said.

If we talk about real estate, the tax will be levied by square meter. That is, if its area exceeds 300 square meters, then a “luxury tax” needs to be paid for it. But if a person has a large family, for example, 10 people, then 300 squares are not such a luxury. At the same time, there are many people who have 10 such apartments registered for beneficiaries. Accordingly, they will not pay tax from them. The expert emphasized. The same applies to land plots: if there are more than 50 “hundreds” - you pay “tax”, but you can, for example, crush this land into 20 villagers.

The results of the introduction of a wealth tax in Ukraine are rather negative. Recent legislative initiatives aimed at introducing taxes on objects of luxury and luxury property that are composite wealth in Ukraine contain quite conflicting norms that cause the concern of the business community, because it can lead to salaries and deepen social stratification, in particular, we are talking about an increase in the tax rate on individuals whose wages exceeds the fifteen -time income The minimum, up to 20%, is believed in the European Business Association.

The Fuckers are concerned about the proposed draft law “On Amending the Tax Code of Ukraine on the introduction of a wealth tax” and note that the minimum wage from January 1, 2012 will amount to 1073 UAH. So, the fifteen -time size of such a minimum wage will be 16.095 hryvnias, which can hardly be considered “wealth”.

Since January 1, 2011, the Tax Code of Ukraine has already sets an increased tax rate (up to 17%) on income that exceed ten minimum salaries. In particular, this is stated in paragraph 167.1 of Article 167 of the Tax Code. Consequently, an additional increase in the tax rate on individuals up to 20% over a small period of time will be perceived as an alarming trend, which will only increase the feeling of demotivation among leading specialists who work legally and pay taxes in Ukraine.

The draft law does not at all provide for the accrual of an increased rate of income tax on individuals on income such as dividends, interest on deposits, as well as assets received by taxpayers for structures controlled by them abroad. Now this category of wealthy taxpayers either does not pay income tax at all, or use preferential rates, which, obviously, is not fair.

In addition, additional encumbrance of individuals cannot occur against the background of an imperfect system of taxation of personal income, which requires systemic reform. Now the individual circumstances of the taxpayers (the presence of a family, its aggregate income, raising children, etc.) are actually not taken into account, therefore, in fact, the burdensome rate of 20% will be applied to minor income.