Tax on “social parasites” to be imposed

The Ministry of Taxes confirms plans on imposing a special tax on “social parasites” and strengthening punishment for tax evasion.

The Ministry of Taxes confirms the plans of the Belarusian authorities on making unemployed people of working age pay duties to the budget and calls for strengthening punishment for tax evasion, Interfax writes.

“The issue on involving every citizen of working age to the formation of the budget revenues and paying taxes is being discussed seriously. A new norm is likely to be imposed to make all unemployed citizens of working age, except for certain categories, pay a certain amount of money to the state budget,” Lidzia Siamashka, the head of the tax service for the Hrodna region, said at a press conference.

She noted that many countries have criminal punishment for tax evasion. “Our measures are softer. Sanctions often do not scare tax dodgers. We stand for stricter sanctions for tax evasion,” Siamashka said.

According to her, Belarusian tax services are already looking for those evading taxes.

“There are people who build expensive homes, buy expensive cars, go abroad and have high incomes, but do not work officially,” the head of the regional tax service said.

Tax agencies of the Hrodna region carried out checks and found more than 2,000 tax dodgers in 2014. Br5.8 billion was paid to the budget additionally.

Revealing the facts of illegal business activity is one of directions of the anti-scrounger campaign, Siamashka says. In 2014, 534 cases of carrying out illegal business activity were revealed in the region.

The most frequent cases are illegal passenger transportation and renting out premises, she says.

Siamashka says that paying employees cash in hand remains a problem. “We found in 2014 more than 30 companies that didn't report the whole payments in account books and paid official salaries that were below the minimum wage. Such facts are connected to concealment of incomes and should be study carefully,” the tax official said.

The draft decree on promoting employment proposes to make unemployed citizens of working age pay a special duty. Unemployed Belarusians will have to pay $250 a year or face administrative sanctions.