Business association Delovaya Rossiya proposes partially scrapping simplified tax system, taxing Russians’ passive income
The business association Delovaya Rossiya has drafted proposals to overhaul the Russian economy, the Russian business news outlet RBC reported. Some of the proposed measures would significantly tighten conditions for small and medium-sized businesses, while others target citizens’ passive income.
The draft document, which RBC reviewed, includes 52 proposals covering a wide range of topics. Among other things, the organization proposes the following:
- Eliminate the tax regime known as the “Income” version of the simplified tax system (USN), which carries a 6% rate. The Bell explains that this would mean “primarily an increase in the tax base for entrepreneurs who earn income through their own skilled labor.”
- Lower the threshold for applying VAT under the auto-USN regime from 60 million to 20 million rubles (matching the current threshold for the “standard” USN).
- Eliminate the patent-based tax system, which The Bell says is widely used by microbusinesses.
- Introduce social security contributions for citizens whose income mainly comes from interest or dividends.
- Introduce an inheritance and gift tax on amounts exceeding 50 million rubles.
- Restrict imports of “strategic innovative products.”
The Bell calls the proposal “a blow to small business” and says it “looks very bad” for medium-sized businesses too.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.
What is this?
This is a special tax regime in which businesses pay tax on all revenue received at a base rate of 6% (or 8% under the auto-USN variant).
Threshold
In November 2025, Putin signed a law gradually lowering the VAT threshold for small businesses operating under the simplified tax system (USN). Previously, the threshold was 60 million rubles (above which businesses already had to pay VAT). It currently stands at 20 million rubles a year. The law envisioned that the threshold would be lowered further, but in the summer of 2026 Putin announced that the further reduction would be postponed until 2029. For the auto-USN variant, the threshold remains 60 million rubles a year, but “aligning” it with the “standard” USN (that is, bringing it down to 20 million), as The Bell says, “almost defeats the purpose of the tax regime that businesses fled to specifically to escape VAT.”