The Ministry of Justice considered the tax on excess profits of previous years to be contrary to the Constitution – Kommersant

The bill of the Ministry of Finance “On the tax on excess profits of past years” was supported by all relevant ministries, including the Ministry of Justice. At the same time, the department noted that such a tax is contrary to the Constitution of Russia. Several changes were also made to the bill. The newspaper reported Vedomosti with reference to the package of documents.

According to Vedomosti, users of the unified agricultural tax regime (ESKhN) will be exempted from the tax. The decision was made at the request of the Ministry of Agriculture. Previously, oil and gas producing, oil refining, coal companies, producers of liquefied natural gas, as well as participants in the register of small and medium-sized enterprises and agreements on the protection and promotion of capital investments were also exempt from the tax.

The relevant departments also asked to exempt the IT sector, medical and educational companies, residents of the ASEZ and TASED, defense enterprises, steelmakers and some other sectors from the tax. The government commission eventually turned them down.

As follows from the materials of the government commission, to which Vedomosti refers, the Ministry of Justice agreed on the bill, although it still had questions for it. In particular, the department drew attention to the fact that in the end, clear reasons for exempting the extractive industries from the tax were not presented, including a financial analysis of the activity.

“In accordance with the basic principles of taxation, each person must pay legally established taxes and fees. Legislation on taxes and fees is based on the recognition of the universality and equality of taxation. When establishing taxes, the actual ability of taxpayers to pay taxes is taken into account. Taxes and fees must have an economic basis and cannot be arbitrary,” the documents say.

The Ministry of Justice pointed out that the tax base has become the superprofit of previous years, as a result of which the relevant norms are actually given retroactive effect. This is contrary to Art. 57 of the Constitution that laws on new taxes or the deterioration of the situation of taxpayers do not have retroactive effect, the department noted.

Formerly in the Ministry of Finance reportedthat the committee approved the bill. The one-time fee will affect enterprises with revenues of more than 1 billion rubles. per year., provided that the profit in 2021–2022 was in total higher than the profit in 2018–2019. Its rate will be 10% of the difference in profits when paid in 2024, but can be reduced to 5% if the company pays the tax in 2023. The authorities expect that the collection will replenish the country’s budget by 300 billion rubles.

More details – in the material “Kommersant FM” “Windfall tax outlined the criteria”.

Olesya Pavlenko