30% of Russia's taxes go unpaid, inspector sadly reveals

Avoidance of tax payments costs the government up to 30% of budgeted tax income. The figure was cited at a briefing yesterday by Viktor Mironov, deputy chief of the Tax Crimes Bureau of the Russian Interior Affairs Ministry's Investigations Committee, Rosbalt reported. On the basis of information from the Taxes and Collections Ministry of the Russian Federation, he said, more than half a million of the 3.4 million legal entities registered in Russia had not, as of July 1, 2003, submitted tax statements or had reported themselves as owing no taxes and having paid none.

Mironov said the situation comes about because 'our tax laws are contradictory, offensive, not fully worked out and constantly changing.' What is more, he emphasized, is that the contradictions in the tax laws make it difficult to expose tax crimes.