Why not pay taxes - steal from yourself

Tax evaders are freeloaders and thieves

About 15 million Russians are not officially employed and do not pay Golikova said that about 15 million citizens receive taxes on gray wages in Russia, and every tenth hides all their income. These are ordinary people: freelancers, tutors, manicurists, builders, drivers, electricians, home confectioners. This is how the state passes by Financial Intelligence has estimated at 20 trillion rubles the volume of the shadow economy in Russia, almost 11 trillion rubles.

Entrepreneurs also evade taxes: about 38% of small businesses in Russia are hidden by Shadow Economies Around the World: What Did We Learn Over the Last 20 Years? their revenues from the tax authorities, and the country's largest enterprises display an Alcohol and Tobacco rating: the top 10 largest tax evaders in Russia money go offshore and come up with murky schemes. The volume of the shadow economy in Russia is 20 trillion rubles, which is more than the state's expenditures for the entire year (17 trillion).

It turns out somehow unfair: everyone uses public goods, and only a part of society pays for them. The rest are freeloaders and thieves who live off honest fellow citizens.

Judge for yourself. Any goods and services have a price: 1 kilometer of the federal highway costs The cost of building 1 km of the federal highway in Russia has dropped to 44 million rubles 44 million rubles, the construction of a regional cancer center - 5-7 billion rubles. It's one thing when everything is thrown off. Another is when the “smartest” ones appear and refuse to pay. All expenses fall on the shoulders of honest citizens, and freeloaders live at their expense.

The state does not give me anything! Why do I need to pay him?

We are accustomed to comfort in everyday life and take it for granted: asphalt on the roads, light and heat in the apartment, schools and kindergartens. Every day we take the subway, walk along the well-equipped embankments and are not afraid that on the way home we will be robbed in the gateway. Few people think about where comfort and safety come from.

Roads will not build themselves, and teachers in schools will not work for free. All this requires money.

Therefore, the inhabitants of the country are thrown into the common piggy bank in order to receive a certain set of public goods. It turns out that taxes are needed not by the state, but by ourselves.

In addition to taxes from the population and business, the state replenishes the budget at the expense of oil and gas. These revenues depend on the prices of resources in the world market, so you cannot rely on them. In 2018, Russia's oil and gas profit amounted to a budget for citizens of 8.8 trillion rubles, but this is not enough. All expenses require almost 17 trillion rubles a year.

I will not pay taxes because my money is being stolen

Yes, corruption is a serious problem. The media now and then write about bribes and bribery. But before you blame someone, you should look at yourself. Not paying taxes means stealing from those who live nearby. Mom and dad, who receive a white salary, grandparents, who survive on a beggarly pension. Why is a defaulter better than a corrupt official?

If a person breaks the laws, he automatically admits that anyone can do it: the state, a business partner, an employer or a cashier in a supermarket.

Living in abundance, comfort and safety means that everyone must follow the rules of the game and not point fingers at each other. Can anyone who steals from it himself complain about the state?

What do my taxes go to?

Let's figure it out.

Personal income tax (personal income tax)

This is 13% of the salary. Those who work unofficially or receive part of their salary in an envelope evade this tax. It goes entirely to the budget of the region where you work. 85% of this money goes to the regional treasury (for example, to the budget of Moscow, Tatarstan or the Sverdlovsk region), 15% - to the local budget (Balashikha or Nizhny Tagil).

The region spends funds in accordance with its needs: it builds and repairs roads that are planned to be repaired this year, finances preschool education, purchases medical equipment and ambulances, and repairs heating mains.

When we do not pay taxes on our income, then first of all we suffer from this ourselves: the region in which we live will receive less money and will be able to do less on it. From this and broken roads, and uncleaned sidewalks, and queues at clinics.

Social insurance contributions

For those who work officially, they are paid by the employer, for the unemployed or workers without registration - the state: 22% goes to the Pension Fund, 5.1% - to the Federal Mandatory Health Insurance Fund and 2.9% - to the Social Insurance Fund. In total, this is 30% of the salary.

Contributions to the Pension Fund are collected in a common boiler and are used to pay pensions. Your parents and grandparents receive financial support from this money from the state.

Contributions to the MHI and social insurance funds are free medicine and benefits. At the expense of this money, we can undergo a medical examination and get vaccinated, undergo an operation and get the necessary medications. From these reserves, sick leave, maternity, unemployment and childcare benefits, survivor's pension are paid.

15 million people do not pay dues and believe that they are doing the right thing.

But if you do not pay at all, elderly people will be left without pensions, they will have to pay for any medical care, and no one will receive vacation and sick leave.

Now do you understand what the money goes for? Yes, the system does not work perfectly, but without taxes everything would have collapsed completely.

Let them take away from the oligarchs, not me

Now in Russia a flat scale of taxation: everyone pays 13% of income. If you introduce a progressive scale, people with high incomes will begin to hide them. This situation already existed in Russia until 2001, and practice has shown that the single income tax works better. In addition, with a tax of 13%, the rich still take more than the poor.

Taxes distribute income between rich and poor. Let's say the poor get 100 rubles, and the rich get 1,000 rubles. In Russia, the poor will pay 13 rubles in taxes, and the rich 130. At the same time, wealthy citizens may not use the free services of the state, but go to commercial clinics and send their children to private schools.

In addition, Russia has a luxury tax: cars worth more than 3 million rubles and expensive real estate are heavily taxed.

Unfortunately, even if all the villas, dachas and yachts are taken away from the oligarchs and corrupt officials, the state will not become much richer. It's all about proportionality: for one person, a billion is a huge amount of money, but by the standards of a country it is an insignificant amount. For example, to pay pensions every day you need 20 billion rubles, and a dacha on Rublevka costs 1 billion. State expenditures are sums with nine zeros, so watches, apartments and villas will be able to cover only a day or two of the pensions of all Russians.

This fact does not in any way justify corruption. And it is perfectly normal to feel angry that someone is bathed in dishonestly acquired money and luxury. But why take it out on your fellow citizens? Indeed, without our taxes, we ourselves, our parents and everyone around us will suffer. The oligarchs will leave, and we have to live here.

And what if everyone pays, we live better?

Let's count. About 15 million Russians work unofficially and do not pay income tax. Hidden wages fund (wages in envelopes and informal employment) - almost 11 trillion rubles. From this amount it would be possible to collect:

13% personal income tax. This is 1.43 trillion rubles, which the regional budgets receive less. It is impossible to divide this amount equally, but for clarity, we will divide it (to understand how much each region loses on average to non-payers). It will turn out to be 16 billion 823 million. It's a lot. The budget of the Ulyanovsk region in 2019 is 59.3 billion rubles, the Sverdlovsk region - 257.4 billion. Three oncological centers, eight polyclinics, 20 schools, 45 kindergartens could be built for 16 billion rubles and 600 kilometers of city roads could be repaired.
22% to the Pension Fund. This is 2.42 trillion rubles, or more than half of all receipts to the Pension Fund in 2017 (4.4 trillion rubles). This amount of contributions would be enough to raise the average pension by 4,300 rubles a month (with the same subsidies from the budget).

Now decide: will we live better if everyone gives up their salaries in envelopes and starts paying taxes? Yes, we will. But as long as part of the population hides their income and lives at our expense, nothing will change.