The Russian government plans to set simplified procedures for declaring personal incomes that were not reported before, Russian finance minister Alexey Kudrin told a routine Monday meeting between the President Vladimir Putin and members of the cabinet.
Kudrin said this issue would be discussed at the next government meeting on August 11, 2005. He commented that they planned to hold “something like an amnesty for personal incomes.” The simplified procedures read that such incomes will be transferred to accounts at credit organizations from January 1 to July 1, 2006 and their owners will pay a 13-percent income tax. As a result, Kudrin underlined, “these people will be exempted from all tax sanctions for the past.”

This decision is linked to the government’s intent to return capital to the country. Authorities are ready to turn a blind eye to some taxpayers who have not abided by tax laws in recent years.

As reported earlier, in his last address to the parliament President Vladimir Putin demanded such amnesty saying that it was necessary to return capital to Russia, to make it “work for our economy instead of ‘loafing around’ in offshore zones.”

Meanwhile, some experts are sure that amnesty for capital may lead to a sharp jump in prices in several branches of the economy. They hold Italy up as an example, where return of capital led to sudden growth in housing prices.