which is three times more than the level of the twenty-first year, this was announced during the meeting of the head of state with the first vice president of iran mohammad mahber. this year the dynamics of mutual trade are also positive. in january-august, the countries traded almost $63 million, which is a quarter higher than last year’s values. in belarus, the volume of industrial production for 9 months amounted to 136 billion rubles, or more than 108% of the level of the same period last year, belsta reports. mining production increased by almost by 5%, in manufacturing by 10. belarusians are saving more and more in the national currency. according to the national bank, in september the volume of ruble deposits increased by almost 2%, and over the year by a quarter. at the same time, deposits in foreign currency lost more than $600 million over the past year. by the end of the twenty-sixth year , the european union's debt could rise to 900 billion euros. the main reason is the debt raising of funds for... antique programs and support

for ukraine. now the debt is 450 billion euros, and this is already nine times more than in twentieth year. in belarus, it is planned to make changes to the tax code of the twenty -fourth year. among the main innovations are the introduction of a progressive approach to the taxation of income and profits, the introduction of a single property payment, expansion of the powers of tax authorities, as well as clarification of transport tax and single tax rates. what other changes are included in the draft tax code, who will they affect and what underlies the proposed innovations, we will discuss with competent experts right now. today we have experts in our studio who have an excellent understanding of complex tax issues. valery belsky, deputy chairman of the council

of the republic of the national assembly of belarus, maxim eermalovich, deputy head of the presidential administration of belarus, yuri silverstov, minister of finance of belarus, igor klepcha, first deputy minister of taxes and duties of belarus. dear guests, good evening. good evening, we know that a draft law on changing the tax code has been submitted to the lower house of parliament. what changes are planned in what? basic changes, standard changes - this is the updating of the tax rates that are set in belarusian rubles, right in the code, inflation is increasing, the rates are being updated, an understandable, completely normal process, the second point is, say, the improvement of tax administration, digitalization is underway, appear some new opportunities and payments in general types of business. naturally, this is

the second block, and the third block, let’s say, these are issues that are related to an increase or decrease in any rates, or this benefits, or this is an increase in taxation for certain sectors, so this time, uh, there is an increase, in short, on several literal issues, an increase in profits for super-profitable enterprises, an increase up to , that is, up to 25%. rates, an increase, therefore , in income tax for highly, let's say, profitable activities, where people receive wages of more than 200,000 rubles per year, 200,000 rubles per year is 16,600 rubles. 100 rubles per month, despite the fact that the average wage in our country is here there is information for august, and for september , probably, this should be it, well

, next year it is planned that there will be a little more than 2,000, for these sectors there will be increases, as well as certain increases, which means, increases for individual entrepreneurs who receive more than , earn more than 500,000 a year, also the income tax rate for them is reduced to 30%, which remains for everyone, but there are also benefits, roughly speaking, additional ones, which are also planned, for example, it is planned to... establish a tax deduction for young people specialists who were sent by assignment, which means to their first place of work, if they continue to work after assignment and remain there, then for 7 years a tax deduction is provided in the amount of the minimum wage, that is , today it is about 550 rubles, then what does this mean, income tax will not be paid on this volume at all, yeah, this is intended to stimulate them, to work where they are distributed. igor nikolaevich, but

such a concept as a single property payment is being introduced, probably this norm is in bigger. to a certain extent will affect, well, all citizens of our country, including us, that’s what its essence is? well, in essence, a single property payment is a combined payment of transport tax, real estate tax and land tax, for which this was done, well , today, in our country, each tax, plus another for each object, is paid to various budgets, that is, the payer , an individual, when paying taxes, he must make several payments, depending on where his real estate or land is located. on today we decided to combine this into one single property payment, which will be paid in one amount to one account, and then the tax service itself will

distribute it accordingly to the budgets of the district, village councils, and so on and so forth, that is, this is absolutely no not a new payment, this is just made for convenience and ease of payment. property taxes by individuals, do i understand correctly, we are simply restructuring, as it were, those types of fees, taxes that people paid in a single payment , that is, there will be no additional tax burden on people, this is done so that it is easy to pay taxes, there is no need to make several payments, but in one payment all the taxes that an individual must pay, transport land, real estate here. but there are quite a lot of changes in the draft law, it is not always easy for an unprepared person to grasp it, but again, here’s how yuri mikhailovich said, firstly, this is a group of innovations, it is associated with the introduction of, well, progressive, the essence of the approach to taxation

of highly profitable legal entities , individual entrepreneurs and individuals, clarification of individual parameters, and the introduction of a single object for clarification of taxation on professional income, yes, criteria for applying a simplified taxation system, the powers of tax authorities are somewhat expanded, a number of others changes that may not affect ordinary people so much, but it should be noted that on the eve of our discussion, after the draft... of the law was published on the national legal portal, of course, many publications have appeared where they are trying to use these issues in order to shake up our society, and destructive information resources, well, openly speculate, that is

, the red thread running through there is that the tax burden on belarusians will increase sharply, even the reasons are stated, allegedly because we do not have enough funds to maintain the state apparatus, bloc, whatever they write there, but the red line of all these publications is that all these innovations are aimed at generating the revenue side of the budget, that is, funds are needed , the budget needs to be filled , please tell me how true this is, and what underlies the changes that we are discussing today in the tax code, changes to... noted, in at the very beginning, they occur annually, and this is such a normal evolution of the tax system, aimed at gradually improving the main types of taxes

that exist in our country, and here this really happens evolutionarily, without sudden movements, this is the main requirement of the head of state that the tax system changes in a way that is understandable for taxpayers and does not cause a significant increase in the tax burden on certain categories of the population. for example, the income tax system is changing significantly; we are moving from a flat scale to an element of progressive taxation, and this change is truly significant. however, the cost of this change, according to various calculations, additional income will be from 10 to 20 million rubles, that is this amount within the budget does not have any significant significance, in a multi-billion dollar

budget these 10-20 million are less than 1%, are you now talking about the amount that will additionally go to the budget when implementing what measure? introduction of a progressive rate for individuals or for legal entities introduction of a progressive rate of income tax, income tax is paid by individuals, respectively, this is a measure for individuals. and you correctly said that these are tax payers at an increased rate the rate becomes our citizens and residents, tax residents, income, average monthly income, which amounts to more than 16.6 thousand belarusian rubles, that is, even people who receive wages in... will still pay tax at the standard

rate, well, one small clarification , if i may, igor nikolaevich, correct me if i’m wrong, but if a person receives more than 16,600 rubles, then he pays an increased rate of income tax, only on the excess amount, correctly, or on the entire amounts, that is, if a person receives 16, there 17, at a flat rate of standard 13% he will pay in the amount of 16.6 there in the period, yes, from the excess amount from these incomplete ones there is 300 rubles, 400 rubles he will pay at a rate of 25 % , that’s right, in fact, absolutely right, the only thing is that the excess will be considered over 200,000 per year, if the amount there is 210,000, then from 10,000 he will pay an increased rate, it will be the same as at the standard rate of 13%. yes. that is, we are talking about the fact that

the tax burden for people with this level of income does not become 25%. it does not matter the same 14-15%, if you compare the amount of tax with the total income of an individual. but it is still an element of progressive taxation. this is implementation in practice. they don’t talk about what, that in principle we have such a norm, what it is connected with, yes, it is with the taxation of dividends, that is , those who receive dividends, including, if

not for the most part, are formed by the distribution of dividends, so we have provided that if you made a profit, received dividends, and sort of distributed it in the same year, then yes, you pay the whole this is the tax you will pay, which means more if it exceeds 200,000, but if you have not distributed it for 3 years, that is, allocated it for investment, then your tax will be 6%. and if you have not distributed profits for 5 years and invested them in investments, your income tax will be zero, and accordingly those who say that you need to invest, you need to develop, and so on, they have all this provided for, are the same ones who it means that for some reason he doesn’t see the country’s development, he gets it, well, yes, then 25%, this is the value, well, plus, it’s necessary don’t forget that these are the benefits we’re talking about, they need to be balanced with something, and the overall level of tax burden we already have, in general, what year, it’s about 23%, that is

, out of 100% of the gdp that earns country , 23% goes to the budget, well, i think this also speaks about certain things, so to speak, that we do not want to make the tax burden there 30% or 32, yeah, returning to social justice, we must evaluate the tax system according to indicators distribution of income among the population and even with a flat income tax scale, the entire tax system successfully performs this function in our country, for example decel coefficients, which correlate 10% of the income of the 10 10% of the highest paid citizens with the 10% - those who receive

the lowest incomes in the country, this coefficient in 2008 year was about six, in 2022 it is also six, that is, this is a low coefficient in comparison with other countries, where the difference in income is tens of times. we are essentially talking about the stratification of society, that is, yes, in many countries of the world, in volume number of developed ones, and these parameters are simply off the scale compared to the belarusian ones , we have always managed to limit the spread of these indicators, that is, in our country the difference between wealthy and low-income citizens is small, it exists, of course, but it is small, absolutely true, and if we talk about - share of our citizens, workers who receive wages above 10,000 rubles per

month, then their share is 0, of the total number of citizens, and if we talk about those at whom this norm is aimed, 2000 per year, or 16.6 rubles per month, then according to our estimates there are about 2,000 people, a little more, 2,000 people, 2,000 people in the country receive an income of more than 2,000 rubles. yes, these 2,000 people are exactly what this measure will affect, these changes in income taxation, but i think that we need to look at the progressive tax system more broadly, this is the first step, we are starting to introduce elements of progressive taxation into the system, and of course, the system

will change, well, do i understand correctly that this thesis of our opponents is that that supposedly all these changes are aimed exclusively at generating the revenue side of the budget, it is not wealthy, ivanovich, yes, of course, dmitritorich, we have already said that the price for the budget, or more precisely, the income that is expected with an increase in the tax burden for a limited the number of business entities and individuals, they will not provide a significant increase in comparison with the overall level of income. but this is precisely an element of social justice. ivanovich, you, well, most of the speakers noted social justice, but when we are talking about it, we must take into account that social justice underlies all decisions on the socio-economic development of our country, and this has been repeatedly emphasized by the head of state, as well as the need for a reasoned improvement of all

components of state policy. we have prepared a story on this topic. let's take a look, please. remember the well-known presidential wish that the banking system would not be, i quote people, full of fat cats. back then, in 2017, no one advertised awards and bonuses for top managers banks, no one except the president. and now the whole country learned something that was somehow not customary to talk about. the salaries of the heads of financial institutions are 20-30 times higher than the salaries of ordinary workers. and it seems that the structures are commercial and have the right to dispose of profits themselves. if not for one thing, banks operate within the country, earn money at the expense of its citizens and enterprises, expensive loans, including a source of excess income. you can build such a system that you will receive pennies per month of the year in the form of a salary, and you can choke on bonuses, as people say, that is, the salary must be earned. the issue of earned, and in fact

fair, salaries at the highest level has been raised more than once, from the recent also resonant belarusian retail, that area... where business, speech among the owners of retail chains is not poor, and this is to put it mildly. great figures and managers receive salaries 30-40 times higher than the average salesman and others. and yes, here we must understand that this is not a reproach from the president to top managers for large incomes. business is still about risks and responsibility, and first of all for people. hundreds of thousands of workers, to whom you, as an employer, are responsible, understandably quite rightly, this is a different level of income. however, all the figures were revealed to the world, not so that everyone could see, other people’s millions of owners of retail chains, but then so that they could see how much an ordinary worker earns with such income, tears, many will say after what they saw, but the people of the sellers need to be brought, here are 800 or 1000 rubles is your salary, but the salary of these so-called

owners is 50-6000. no one minds business earned money, but your employees also need... to be given such an opportunity, perhaps this is the whole point of presidential criticism and the main trend of belarusian politics, a simple, understandable and important request for justice, all issues in the country are looked at through this prism. i often say: yes, the law is the same for everyone and the laws must be followed, but you can’t write everything in the laws, so very often, especially our judicial corps, and we too, when making vertical decisions, certain decisions, rely on justice. it is logical that a fair approach should be at the core, for example, pricing, remuneration of employees, taxation, business often sins in the first, second, and third cases. we'll have it soon. there will be 12 million individual entrepreneurs, we don’t have that many people, but there will be 12 million individual entrepreneurs, we have created a colossal

offshore, where people pay nothing, and now all individual entrepreneurs, from journalists, examples aplenty, to officials, so we need to put things in order here , the task is set for a reason, ip and this has long been no secret , they are taking advantage of loopholes in the laws, begging the scope business, because if he decides... to split up his company by registering a dozen individual entrepreneurs, taxes will not become a difficult time. the authorities see this, they understand the tax authorities, how, under the guise of an individual entrepreneur , you can do big business with frankly small taxes. so, now ip specialists will be offered a mode of transformation into a small medium-sized organization, corresponding to the status and scale of the tax burden, so that everyone is fair. this logic follows in relation to rural tourism. sports have been around for a long time, and it seems that benefits were promised in the form of one tax basic. but who knew that the revival of the village way of life would become a convenient cover for organizers of wedding banquets in cottages with little resemblance to rural houses, they built hotels, for god’s sake, i don’t mind,

but pay taxes like all hotel complexes, they built restaurants, chic in nature, i don’t mind either , and cafes and restaurants , let them be, but pay taxes like the entire restaurant business, no, they have benefits , everything is fine, otherwise it’s a shame somehow for the owners of real agricultural estates to work for much less money than those who just rents out houses, throws banquets. a fair approach to people is heard in almost every presidential address to the people and parliament; this is both a measure of the effective work of government and a guarantor of a balanced distribution of social benefits and protection from shocks. our policy is built on simple, understandable principles: the principle of fairness, the demand for fairness will increase. the people are the only source of state power and bearer of sovereignty. this norm,

the constitution, predetermines the main principle of our policy, social justice, and we will follow it no matter what happens in the world in the country. the importance of justice is growing all over the world in belarusian society, and its importance is also not diminished. this is one of the conditions for sovereignty, the president is convinced. good compliance. these principles give us hope that we will not have to jeopardize the conditions of independence. social justice. valery ivanovich, please tell me what, what consequences may occur if we do not comply with the implementation of the principle of social justice in economic relations, i mean the consequences that are now observed in many countries, including developed ones, and we simply do not have the right to allow them. well. first of all, dmitry avetevich, i would like to say that the stratification of our citizens by income level is, well , our advantage even to some extent, our virtual absence of stratification is a very

minimal value, it exists, it is objective, but we are among the top five countries , among all members of our global community with a minimum level of income stratification, that this gives? this is first of all social... stability, social stability, as a consequence, this is the attractiveness of our jurisdiction of our country jurisdiction for locating a business, for investment, for developing this business, so when we say that business, highly paid citizens, more, most becomes, becomes payers of the majority of their income, and we said that this is a very small part of the members of our society, this is a kind of payment for maintaining comfortable conditions for doing business, and in in principle, by spending a little more,

we can guarantee that this will lead to even greater earnings, let’s say, by attracting buyers, by advertising our country as a country of responsible business, well, by, well... such a social consensus , to which we are constantly striving, taking various actions, including in the field of taxation, so this is a very important not only social category, it is an economic category, i would say, that is, if we deviate from this principle in economic relations, there will be undesirable consequences for our country , for our people, which we have no right to allow, and stratification, and increased tension and the absence of such simple human stability, which belarusians probably value most of all, of course, and about stratification, as i said, we received the delegation,

quite high-ranking, one said, he says, so tago... it turns out that we are in approximately the same subways, he says, ministers travel, i say, yes, he says, well, this is colossal, this is colossal , the conditions we are in, we don’t have people who , well, they don’t visit certain districts, there are no people there, i don’t know, who live in some kind of bohemian life, that is, we are all in approximately the same conditions, and this is also our strength, yes, but this is connected not only with economic decisions, including decisions in the field of taxation. this is also a question of educating a belarusian person, that is, a responsible attitude towards one’s social role, not emphasizing one’s advantages, by the way, our business also behaves quite responsibly, i think that he will normally accept these decisions, they are also predicted decisions, that is , especially for individual entrepreneurs , a whole road map has been implemented, so it cannot be said that these are innovations, they were born yesterday in some offices, they

have been discussed for a long time, this has been going on for 2 years adaptation and business is also trying despite the fact that the tax burden remains stable or in this case for some categories it increases, that is, business behaves as very socially responsible, increasing, for example, assistance, those in need at the expense of the earned profits remaining at the disposal of these companies, well, we know an example. it is known, for example, when, i will not name so as not to create advertising, yes, but, for example, wards for veterans are equipped, sponsorship is provided for expensive treatment, our business, based on its concept of its development, i understand that i i think that we will treat these decisions with understanding and all these speculations, this is not a belarusian berry, let’s say, that is, these

are slander, there is no doubt about that, more moreover, the vast majority of citizens will not feel these changes in terms of an increase in the tax burden, business, well , probably only large, highly profitable businesses will not feel it , the same with individual entrepreneurs, maxim leonidovich, well, let’s return to progressive taxation, in fact, if... the changes are supported, yes, accepted, an element of, well , progressive taxation will appear in our fiscal system, you talked about this and said that this is most likely just the first step, but tell me please, if there are prerequisites for this in our belarusian society, are we ready and what consequences, that is, can occur as a result of this measure, because negative consequences are also possible, negative, i

mean attempts... business, to evade taxation , change the residence of our taxpayers, large ones, so as not to pay these increased taxes, what do you think? today the tax system is an objective reality, mainly formed by indirect taxes, vat, and vat, excise taxes, then there are taxes on consumption, our population , if we take the average household, consumes about 70%, the rest goes to savings, this 70% is one way or another the purchase of goods, food, non-food, the purchase of services, in these services, goods , a fairly large share of taxes, and the opposite effect occurs with a significant

share of indirect taxes in the system, it is easier to collect, this is a tax that is paid when purchasing a product, so the share of tax payments in families with a higher burden consumer, it is higher, yeah, it does not depend on income, in order to eliminate this effect, to increase social justice, to increase the efficiency of the system, it is necessary to gradually reduce taxes on consumption. what do you think, maxim ilenovich, will people try to evade taxes on excess income? there are different mechanisms, we will not suggest them, but this is how society works, the progressive scale is not so rigid in order to look for some options, to hide excess income,

to hide them somewhere. them in an envelope then think about them legalize in order to pay for some services or goods, or to purchase expensive real estate. than to do this, it is better to pay this part of the tax, it is not so large, live quietly, without attracting the attention of the tax authorities, so i am convinced that this will work better than any other methods...