russians Have Received a Bill for the War: Tax Authorities Are Taking Money from Deposits

russians have received notifications from tax authorities en mass about paying income tax on bank deposits for 2024. This is a relatively new obligation that the authorities began to actively apply after the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine in order to compensate for financial losses to the budget by shifting the burden onto their own citizens.

The tax is levied on interest received on deposits in all russian banks. The base rate is 13 %, while  for citizens with an annual income of more than 5 million rubles, it is 15 %. From 2025, russia will have a progressive tax scale with a maximum rate of 22 %, and it is according to this scale that taxes on deposits will be calculated from 2026.

Although the authorities claim that this is for “social justice”,  in reality it is an attempt to replenish the budget, which is being rapidly depleted by military spending. The first revenues from this tax in 2023 brought 111 billion rubles to the rf.