Property Taxation of Individuals at Income and Wealth Inequality

Abstract

Since 2021 the Russian tax policy relies on greater use of progressive taxation in order to mitigate income inequality. In fact, personal income tax scale has been reformed; however, this measure is not enough to solve the problem because of disparities between rich and poor to be origin from wealth inequality to a large extent. So, there is a need to employ non-standard, innovative approach based on a reform of property taxation, such as the introduction of a wealth tax. The need to mitigate inequality determines the relevance of the topic, while the approach to its development determines its scientific novelty. The authors set the goal of increasing the fairness of taxation by shifting fiscal burden to wealth instead of income or luxury itself, with regard to Russian-specific environments. The goal incorporates, among other things, such objectives as analyzing the peculiarities of the Russian property taxation practice, identifying shortcomings in the design of taxes on movable and immovable property, summarizing the best foreign practice of wealth taxation and forming a list of constructive recommendations when using scientific methods of analysis, comparison, analogy, induction and deduction. Upon studying a wide range of information sources including statistical data, economic papers and relevant regulatory framework, it was concluded that property taxation contributes very little to personal income equalization and generally has weak effect on the Russian tax system progressivity; at the same time, the most promising scenario for solving the problem of inequality by tax means is to impose a wealth tax, which would be charged only on real estate, without affecting other assets such as bank deposits, securities, and vehicles. The recommendations refer to the applied part of the paper and are aimed at forming a tax reform procedure harmonized with the interests of taxpayers and adapted to the current real property tax design. The paper substantiates that at the initial stage of wealth taxation, priority should be given to the effectiveness of tax administration, which implies the continuity of many elements of the luxury tax in the wealth tax, including personal tax-free allowance at 300 million rubles and flat tax rate of

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