03.06.09

During the first few months of 2009, over 55% of businesses who had previously been “under-paying,” raised their salaries to a "legal" level. According to the Moscow Federal Tax Service Agency’s press service, a large portion of the taxpaying businesses today, who engage in such practices, are concentrated in the wholesale, retail, financial, and service sectors, as well as in real estate, construction, and production.

The press service goes on to say that “the results of this complex control conducted during the first quarter of 2009, attest to the lack of discipline and the presence of numerous unscrupulous tax practices allowed by unprofitable enterprises.”

Some basic violations of the tax laws that businesses commit are: intentionally reporting a lower income than that actually earned, reporting economically unfounded, undocumented expenditures, and paying salaries off the record.

Since the beginning of the year, tax and administrative inspections have exposed nearly 2,000 financially-struggling firms which have failed to observe the current tax legislation.

The Moscow Federal Tax Service emphasized that “as a result of utilizing this entire set of measures in an attempt to legalize the payment of salaries currently paid off-the-record, minimum wage increased during the first quarter of 2009. From the ‘low-income’ taxpaying enterprises inspected, the minimum wage level rose 55.9% from the original 10,200.”

Translated by Alinga Consulting Group.

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Source: ИА «Росбалт»