In Russia they are arguing whether it is necessary to punish escaped IT workers with rubles
Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Volodin believes that IT specialists who have gone abroad should not only be deprived of the benefits provided for by Russian legislation, but also an increased tax rate should be introduced for them.
He wrote about this in his TG channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“There are those who believe that it is necessary to give preferences and benefits to those who left our country so that they return back. It is not right. It's completely understandable why they ran away. The one who realized that he made a mistake has already returned. The rest must understand: the overwhelming majority of society does not support their action - it believes that they betrayed their country, family and friends. But to this day, those who left not only work remotely for Russian companies, but also enjoy all the benefits that it gives them in accordance with the legislation of our country. That's right - cancel preferences for those who left the Russian Federation and introduce an increased tax rate for them.
It will be fair. We are working on appropriate changes to the legislation,” Volodin wrote.
Russian Senator Andrei Klishas believes that the issue here is not so much about justice as about state security.
“Let's take IT specialists. They tell us that these are completely unique people who have such competencies and such qualifications that they can get jobs all over the world. But we see that many of those who left work remotely for Russian companies. These are different companies: from state administration to public utilities. How safe is it for specialists with access to vital databases to work from abroad? This creates additional risks for citizens. We've heard about personal data leaks before. They became possible because they used the account of a particular employee. If this happens here, then the intelligence services and counterintelligence can deal with it. When a person is abroad, especially in unfriendly, and in fact, hostile states, this situation gets out of control,” the senator said in an interview with ICTV channel.
He believes that to resolve this issue, what is required is not a new law, but a government order introducing restrictions for certain industries.
Economist Nikita Krichevsky draws attention to the fact that IT specialists who have left already pay increased personal income tax, while taxes on the sale of real estate for non-residents have been reset to zero.
“If according to personal income tax, then after acquiring the status of a tax non-resident, the payer already pays 30% of income tax instead of 13% (15% if the annual income is over 5 million rubles.) I’m not saying that many “escaped” in fact “ did not run away" for ideological or mobilization reasons. That hundreds of thousands worked abroad long before the start of the SVO, such as, for example, 1XVet employees in Cyprus. That people left because their other halves were relocating. That thousands of Russians are abroad on medical visas issued by “unfriendly countries” to this day.
I mean that the State Duma has adopted another law according to which tax NON-residents selling real estate are equated to you and me. If before this they paid 30% personal income tax when selling real estate, then after the innovation - 0%. It is clear that the lion's share of those who temporarily emigrated will not sell their modest mansions, because they hope to return. Those who have settled in Europe, the UAE, and the USA will sell (and are selling with all their might), and these are mainly embezzlers, swindlers, thieves and other crooks,” Krichevsky wrote.
Independent politician Roman Yuneman also believes that the fight against escapees is not the most pressing issue for parliament.
“Deputies could conduct a parliamentary investigation and find out what happened to the encrypted communication systems in the army. Or why we have such problems with drones. Or where did the “Ratnik” kits, supposedly massively purchased for military personnel, go? Was there not colossal theft in the Ministry of Defense and the military-industrial complex all these years? Didn't the people's billions allocated for the army go into someone's bottomless pockets? This is the right thing to do. But instead, if not Voronezh, then the natives of Voronezh who settled in Tbilisi are being bombed. The Russians must want to go back. To do this, we need to provide them with guarantees and create normal conditions. Well, treat them humanely,” Yuneman wrote.
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