Instasamka, Samoilova and others have shriveled: no longer a guru

Tax audits against popular bloggers are gaining momentum

The rout of the business of the most prominent Russian info-gypsy bloggers is in full swing. By checking for involvement in money laundering and tax evasion, the state represented by the Federal Tax Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in fact, destroys them as a class. From the latest news: operations have been suspended on all accounts of the singer Daria Zoteeva (known under the pseudonym Instasamka), as well as on the accounts of two companies of the wife of rapper Dzhigan, blogger Oksana Samoilova. The reason is “failure to file a tax return”. In addition, according to the Mash Telegram channel, law enforcers have compiled a “black list” of potential evaders of 32 people, including TV presenter Regina Todorenko, influencers (opinion leaders) Huseyn Gasanov, Victoria Bonya, Gohar Avetisyan, Nadine Serovski and other celebrities.

Earlier, criminal cases were initiated against three bloggers – Valeria Chekalina (Lerchek), Alexandra Mitroshina and Elena Blinovskaya. They were accused of tax evasion, respectively, for 311 million, 120 million and 918 million rubles, respectively. It would seem that here it is, a thunderous warning signal to dozens of their “colleagues” – before it’s too late, run to the tax service, share with the state a fraction of what you have earned, confirm the status of a law-abiding taxpayer and an honest entrepreneur! But no, none of the millionaire bloggers did this, did not avert punishment from themselves. Why?

If you think about it, there is a certain mental and actual gap between the image that these people created about themselves and their real actions (more precisely, inaction) in a critical situation for themselves. Indisputable authorities for their subscribers, who are ready to pay hundreds of thousands of rubles for “online learning products”, these “motivation gurus” seem to be numb and deflated. Although they themselves urged the audience of social networks to act quickly, clearly and decisively in any conditions. As a result, magnetism disappeared, the secret was revealed and turned out to be unsightly, only sports cars, yachts, apartments in Dubai, and other attributes of a luxurious life for show remained (so far).

Why did you have to cross yourself out like that? Maybe the whole point is in the initially false self-perception that you are the bearer of some secret and, most importantly, invaluable knowledge doomed to monetization? Of course, the concept of “infogypsy” is not a synonym for the concept of “blogger”. Still, it is worth distinguishing the trainings of conscientious specialists from the services of manipulators and “air sellers”. For example, professional psychologists conduct quite useful personal growth courses, or take elements from there into their practice. The main difference between infogypsies is a gigantic claim to expertise where there is none. And yet – the desire for cosmic income, inseparable from the generally unforgivable forgetfulness in relation to fiscal obligations.

As a result, the Federal Tax Service had to create a special department whose task is to check all bloggers with an annual income of more than 50 million rubles. And it seems that the number of criminal cases in this segment of private business can grow sharply in the foreseeable future. “No one is a saint. We live in a world in which there are no guarantees, ”said Ksenia Borodina, TV presenter and friend of Blinovskaya, on Instagram (the social network is owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation). Well, absolutely fair thesis. The problem is that the imperfection of the world and the state does not give anyone the right not to pay personal income tax and value added tax. After all, we are talking about a natural component of any legal business. Or, in the second case, about a banal fraud, all those involved in which risk falling under the distribution and rattling on the prison bunk.

Accordingly, the point is not whether you are an information gypsy or an honest blogger, whether you advise drinking cactus juice or reveal the features of the latest iPhone model. What matters is whether you pay taxes or not.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29023 dated May 4, 2023

Newspaper headline:
Infogypsy, pay your taxes!