Russia wants to introduce an additional "tax on Google"

According to Vedomosti, a new fiscal measure in the form of a digital tax may be included in the second package of measures to support the Russian IT industry.

“It is supposed to charge an additional fee from the company that uses the data of Russians and forms advertising policy on the territory of the Russian Federation. For example, when analyzing user behavior on the network for launching contextual advertising”, - the publication notes with reference to the meeting participants.

The authorities want to use the money received in this way from foreign IT companies to support the Russian IT industry. The tax is planned to be introduced by the middle of this year.

The first "tax on Google" in Russia was introduced in 2017. It must be paid by IT companies that sell games, databases and other software in the Russian Federation remotely. As soon as this tax was introduced, prices for software and services of foreign developers soared up in Russia. This affected customers Google, Microsoft and Facebook.

The authorities explained the feasibility of introducing a new tax at the expense of foreigners by the fact that the domestic IT industry needs help, but the government can no longer support it from the budget: representatives of the industry have already been provided with many benefits and preferences, which negatively affects the filling of the budget, which has been seriously affected from coronacrisis.

Budget revenues from the "first tax on Google" in Russia are estimated at about 50 billion rubles. in year. Experts believe that companies lose more on this tax than the authorities gain, and therefore it would be more effective not to cross-subsidize some market players at the expense of others, but to return to a simplified form of obtaining zero VAT for developers. A good help for the domestic digital industry could be the elimination of double taxation for domestic companies offering their services through foreign platforms.