Working pensioners were promised a tax refund: experts considered it a utopia

There is no money in the treasury for the elderly who continue working

The deputies decided to support the support of working pensioners. The initiative comes from the Liberal Democratic Party, which submitted to the State Duma a bill on a tax refund for this category of citizens in the amount of half of the paid personal income tax. Experts consider the idea deliberately utopian. At least for the reason that a few years ago the state refused to index pensions for pensioners who continue to work and crossed them out of their social agenda. It is unlikely that the authorities will change their approach to paying old-age benefits when there are sanctions in the yard, and a budget deficit is expected at the end of the year.

“Not by washing, but by rolling,” Yaroslav Nilov, deputy head of the faction, explained in his Telegram channel. – While the LDPR bill on the return of indexation of pensions to working pensioners is not being adopted, we have come up with another mechanism to support them. Pension social tax refund (not to be confused with a deduction!) in the amount of 50% of the amount of income tax (but not more than 25 thousand per year) will be able to return working pensioners in accordance with our initiative.”

According to the proposed bill, it will be possible to return taxes without much difficulty. The applicant will only have to apply to the Federal Tax Service (FTS), which will consider the application within 10 days. Excess fiscal payments will be transferred in non-cash form to the citizen’s bank account within a month from the date of sending the relevant application. For each calendar day of delay, the authors of the document provide interest equal to the current refinancing rate of the Central Bank.

Meanwhile, objective circumstances do not allow us to hope for legislative approval of these amendments to the Tax Code. It looks like the initiative has no chance. Suffice it to recall the words of the head of the Ministry of Finance Anton Siluanov: “Now you need to be very careful in accepting new obligations.” The budget deficit in 2022 will amount to at least 1.6 trillion rubles, the minister noted, effectively closing the topic related to various social support measures. And no arguments will work here, including those given in the explanatory note to the bill from the Liberal Democratic Party, which notes that from January 1, 2016, working pensioners are not indexed the amount of a fixed payment to the insurance pension., Which negatively affects the financial situation of pensioners , and in the context of rising inflation, it increases social tension.

“The conceptual approach of the authorities is as follows: it is not necessary to help citizens who have additional earnings. Regardless of whether they are pensioners or not, – says Alexei Zubets, a professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. “Moreover, salaries in Russia are usually higher than pensions. Additional payments through a tax refund will lead to a reduction in the tax base. It should also be understood that personal income tax is a regional tax, which means that we are talking about the prospect of reducing the resources at the disposal of the regions. There is no money in the state treasury to directly finance the pensions of working pensioners (there are 8.5 million of them in the country, with an average pension of 14.1 thousand rubles), but it would be completely wrong to withdraw funds from local budgets.”

This initiative raises more questions than it answers, says Sergey Smirnov, a leading researcher at INION RAS. Wouldn’t it be easier to initially reduce the personal income tax rate for working pensioners, why break into an open door, what’s the point of first collecting tax from people and then returning it, albeit in the amount of 50% of the amount paid? However, there is a certain grain of expediency and social justice in the bill, although the mechanism itself looks awkward. Pensions for working pensioners are not indexed, but are only recalculated from August 1 by a maximum of 3 points, and these are mere crumbs.

By the way, users of social networks did not ignore the topic, reacting quite adequately. There are such, for example, remarks: “No taxes should be levied on working pensioners at all. Then there will be no need for indexing. Is it possible that economists still cannot understand this? “A pensioner should not work, but receive a decent pension for life.”