Belarus Wants the Database with All Incomes of the Population

Why and what data may get there.

The Ministry of Taxes and Duties again supports the creation of a database with enhanced information on income. This initiative was discussed at public advisory meetings of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties and the Ministry of Labour. Tax authorities had already suggested creating the base with information on all incomes of Belarusians, writes tut.by.

At least twice in November 2019 the idea of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties to create a new base of incomes of the population was discussed in the Ministry of Labour. The reason is to provide cashless housing subsidies on an identification principle, Deputy Minister for Taxes and Duties Sviatlana Sheuchenka said.

Expert Andrei Karpunin said that it's impossible to establish the amount of real income for non-cash housing subsidies under Presidential Decree № 322.

The public-advisory meeting of the Ministry of Labour also noted that if the changes, proposed by the tax authorities, were adopted, accounts would have to fill in the detailed information on citizens' income and submit it to the database on citizens' income.

As a result, it was decided that the cost of such a database did not meet the number of people who needed non-cash housing subsidies.

It should be specified that the tax authorities propose to introduce an enhanced database based on the state social insurance system. In other words, employers should provide information about all incomes of employees to the SSF.

The tax authorities have already proposed such an initiative. It was assumed that the database would be introduced from 1 January 2019, but its introduction was postponed to early 2021. They proposed to record all types of accrued income (wages, dividends, interest on bank deposits, etc.).

Earlier, Minister for Taxes and Duties of Belarus Siarhei Nalivaika noted that the tax authorities had much information on personal income. However, the problem is that it is fragmented. It served as a ground to create an information database on citizens' income.

According to him, the database should accumulate and combine all these fragmented information on one platform.

- As electronic interactions and information databases with other public bodies, and not just public bodies, grow, this information will either accumulate in our database or our database will have online access to these sources. Some approaches may be revised, said Siarhei Nalivaika.

The Minister of Taxes and Duties gave an example that "some reports are now submitted to the National Statistical Committee or the Social Security Fund, and we will get this information from there".

- Or vice versa: after a while, it will be decided that these reports are submitted only to the tax authorities, and we give them to our colleagues. I would like to note that we have a principled approach to maintaining tax secrecy. This is a very serious requirement. All measures are taken to comply with this norm, said Siarhei Nalivaika.