MOSCOW, November 21 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered the tax service on Monday to write off arrears, which appeared before January 2009, in the first quarter of 2012.
“Fiscal authorities should finish this work in the second quarter of 2012,” Putin told a tax conference.
Head of the Federal Tax Service Mikhail Mishustin has previously said that the write off would happen automatically.
Putin also said Russia’s current flat income tax rate of 13 percent was right and justified.
“Currently, its rate is one of the lowest in Europe and in the world – 13 percent. There was a lot of debate on the issue and it continues but I believe we were absolutely right,” he said, adding that the measure allowed the government to push salaries out of the grey economy.
Tax revenues in the federal budget will increase 27 percent to 9.8 trillion rubles in 2011, Putin said.
He also said that Russian authorities would allocate some 30 billion rubles in the next 3 years to modernize the tax service and ease documentation flow.