Owners of bank savings in Russia will face a new tax

In 2023, Russians will pay tax on interest income from deposits for the first time. In the past and in 2021, the government exempted owners of bank savings from paying it due to the crisis and sanctions, but now the relaxation has ended. The Ministry of Finance expects that in 2024–2026 the tax on interest on deposits will bring the budget 312 billion rubles. Next year alone, the state treasury will be filled with 101 billion rubles from this collection. MK found out from experts who will have to pay how much from interest income from their own savings.

Next year, Russians will have to pay tax on interest income on deposits accrued for 2023. This must be done during the period from the moment of receipt of the notification from the Federal Tax Service (FTS) and until December 1, 2024. You don’t have to calculate anything yourself. The Federal Tax Service will calculate the amount at the end of this year based on information from banks and will send a notification to the taxpayer’s personal account, by mail to his address and to his account on the government services website.

You can figure out for yourself whether you are among those who must pay tax. To do this, sum up all actual interest income on all your deposits for the calendar year (from January 1 to December 31). As Anastasia Khrustaleva, senior vice-president of Fontvielle Investment Company, noted, it does not matter whether the interest remained on the account or was withdrawn from it. Next, we calculate the non-taxable base in a specific calendar year. To do this, we take into account the maximum key rate that was in effect in a given year. In 2023 it is still at the level of 13%. Next, the amount of income that is not taxed is calculated using the formula: the amount of 1 million rubles is multiplied by the maximum key rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. For example, on January 1, 2023, it is 7.5% and at that time taxes would not have to be paid if the interest received on all accounts and deposits for the year was less than 75 thousand rubles. Currently, the key rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is 13% per annum. Let’s say it remains the same until the end of the year. Then the amount of interest income on which you do not have to pay taxes will be 130 thousand rubles. If by the end of the year the rate is raised again, for example, to 14%, then the level of non-taxable income will already be 140 thousand rubles.

The tax on interest on bank deposits in the Russian Federation in 2023 will be charged only on that interest income on deposits that exceeds 130 thousand rubles, and then only if the Central Bank of the Russian Federation does not raise the key rate again this year, and the likelihood of it the increase is very high, judging by the statements of regulator representatives. If the rate increases, the amount of tax-free income on deposits will also increase.

As Freedom Finance Global analyst Vladimir Chernov pointed out, according to preliminary estimates, in Russia there are less than 3% of deposits from which it will be necessary to pay tax on interest on them. The tax-free amount is now 130 thousand rubles, which means that in order for interest on deposits to exceed it, the deposit itself must be over 1.4 million rubles. “It can be noted that most depositors will be exempt from paying this tax, since the average deposit in Russia is about 300 thousand rubles,” states Khrustaleva.

The expert listed three important nuances related to the fee under discussion. Firstly, not one account is taken into account, but a set of bank deposits opened with one individual in different banks, and the interest income on them is summed up. Secondly, not only those accounts that were opened in Russian banks are taken into account, but also in foreign ones. The third important point is that not only income from ruble deposits is taken into account, but also from foreign currency ones. In the latter case, if the accounts are in dollars, yuan or euros, then the income is simply converted into rubles at the current exchange rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.

“I would like to emphasize once again that we are not talking about the amount of the deposit, but specifically about interest income,” Khrustaleva emphasizes.

As for assistance to the Russian economy, this tax will be quite modest. According to Chernov, for the country’s budget of several tens of trillions of rubles, annual tax revenues of 101 billion rubles will not play a big role. However, most Russians will not even notice this tax. So, with a deposit of 1 million rubles and an average refinancing interest rate this year of 9% per annum, you will not have to pay such a tax at all, because interest income will be only 90 thousand rubles, which is noticeably lower than the tax-free amount of 130 thousand rubles. And if a Russian has a deposit for 2 million rubles under the same conditions, then he will have to pay only 6,500 rubles, despite the fact that the interest income from this deposit will be 180 thousand rubles, which is quite tolerable.

Thanks to the policy of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, deposit rates this year are quite attractive. Thus, the maximum yield on ruble savings in banks by the end of September, according to the regulator, was 10.2%. This is almost twice as high as official inflation, which by October 2 was at 5.9%. So Russians opening deposits this year will be able to protect their money from inflation and even make money.

However, the new tax does not cause much enthusiasm among the population, to put it mildly, since questions arise about the fairness of such a fee. “Some people gradually, over a long period of time, accumulate such money from their income, on which they have already paid taxes, and now they are forced to pay taxes again: this results in double taxation,” explains Associate Professor of the Department of Finance for Sustainable Development of the Russian Economic University. Plekhanova Maria Ermilova. If taxation has a strong impact on the mood of the population, the number of deposits will begin to decline. People will transfer them to other assets, the expert is sure. It should also be remembered that next year the conditions for savings will most likely worsen. “It is predicted that in 2024 the key rate will be one and a half to two percent lower than it is now,” says Sergei Ostrovsky, general director of the Bely Ostrov Group of Companies. “Therefore, the amount that will be charged for tax on deposits will be slightly less than 130 thousand rubles: in the region of 110-115 thousand rubles.” Thus, whether the government will be able to achieve three-year plans for collecting tax on interest income from deposits in such conditions is still an open question. But the goal for 2024 will be quite realistic, financiers are sure.