No altruism at all: Russians do not want to increase taxes to help the poor people

Novye Izvestia recently reported that a VTsIOM poll allegedly showed that most Russians would agree to pay high taxes if the state provided more support to the poor with free security, health and education services.

Allegedly, 54% of respondents expressed their consent to pay more taxes to help the poor. 45% prefer to pay high taxes with confidence that this will provide them with confidence in the wide availability and high quality of public services. 33% expressed a desire to pay less taxes, not believing that public services will certainly be of adequate quality. 28% chose the low tax option because it would allow people to manage their money in the best possible way. 83% favored a progressive scale of taxation, and only 13% favored an equal rate regardless of the taxpayer's income.

However, in reality, everything turned out to be completely different from what the Russian media wrote about it. Economist Dmitry Prokofiyev tried to make sense of such a strange demonstration of altruism on the part of poor citizens:

“In continuation of the story with the VTsIOM poll - that 54% of Russians are allegedly" ready to pay more taxes", - just to support the poor.

Quoting the VTsIOM release, I referred to the source , but did not give details.

And the details are great.

VTsIOM did not ask - "are you ready to pay more (for the sake of the poor)".

The question was: “What judgment most accurately reflects your opinion?"

With the answer option "Taxes can be high, if only poor people could receive more support from the state in the form of free services)"

Do you see the difference?

It is not 54% of Russians "agree with the increase in taxes in favor of the poor".

This is 54% of "poor people" ask for "support in the form of free services".

And further. The poll was on March 2, and the results were rolled out only for the forum (I mean the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which has just ended - editor's note).

This means that taxes will increase - and will pretend that you yourself asked for it.

Yes, and money will not be given to the poor. "Free services" will promise at best..."

For reference:

The taxes paid by Russians are among the highest in the world. Personal income tax is withheld from the salaries of citizens - 13-15% and insurance premiums for compulsory insurance - 30.2%. That is, the state takes away almost every second ruble that a citizen earns. Russia is often compared to the United States of America. But in the US, the maximum rate is 37% for incomes over $ 510.3 thousand per year.

According to Rosstat, the average salary in Russia is 42.5 thousand rubles, or $ 580 per month and $ 6920 per year. In the United States, for such a salary, the maximum tax rate is 10%. But in Russia there are still taxes on real estate and vehicles: personal property tax and transport tax . These include contributions for overhaul of common property.