Putin needs money – that’s why there is now a special tax for oligarchs in Russia Germans fought for Russia in the Donbass – now there is a case against him

war costs. Vladimir Putin knows this all too well. Even if the Russian ruler is happy to deny that Russia is imposing sanctions on his country because of the invasion of the neighboring country and that the Russian war chest is slowly emptying, he apparently cannot completely ignore the financial consequences of the “special operation” that has taken place. been going on for almost 16 months now.

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And that is why the Russian government is now getting creative. To flush new liquid assets into the treasury, the Russian Ministry of Finance recently announced that large Russian companies must pay a one-off windfall tax. This should be up to ten percent, as reported by businessinsider.com.

A windfall tax is a one-time special tax levied when a company or an entire industry suddenly reaps an unexpectedly large profit.

The announcement from the Treasury Department states that all large companies that have earned more than $11.9 million in profits must pay levies. Analysts at the Financial Times say the Russian metals sector and companies dealing in fertilizers are likely to be hit hardest by the tax. Despite Western sanctions, Russian companies made significant sales in these areas last year.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said the measure was expected to raise about 300 billion rubles, the equivalent of about 3.25 billion Swiss francs.

Beloussow’s further comments on the tax seem somewhat questionable: many of the oligarchs who own the companies are such great patriots that they immediately proposed the tax themselves. “You know they had huge windfalls in 2021 and 2022 that were huge, bigger than budget,” Belousov told Interfax. Since the owners would identify with Russia in this way, they wanted to pay a windfall tax.

According to official information, the money is intended for social expenditure. However, the deputy prime minister did not provide any further details about its use.

All in all, Russia has had to accept a significant deficit since the beginning of the war. In particular, revenues from energy exports dropped significantly as a result of the sanctions. (con)