25 November 2025
The second VAT increase in seven years, which will propel Russia into the global top tier for this tax, promises a hit of hundreds of billions of rubles on the wallets of Russian consumers, a third of whom already admit to lacking money for food.
The fiscal impact of raising the VAT rate to 22% in 2026 could amount to approximately 1.4 trillion rubles for domestic VAT and up to 460 billion rubles for VAT on imports, according to experts from the Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
“The population will bear a significant burden of paying additional tax liabilities,” they warn: According to the Individual Tax Inspectorate (IPI), citizens will have to pay 1.23 trillion rubles out of their own pockets in the form of increased prices for all goods and services in the country.
Since the preferential VAT rate will remain on socially important goods, the 10% of the population with the highest incomes will pay 32% of the additional tax, according to experts. At the same time, the cost of current consumption will increase by 1-1.6%, and inflation will accelerate by 1.1-1.3 percentage points as a result, according to the IEF RAS report.
The budget, which is spending a record share of its expenditures on the military and weapons production since the Soviet era, urgently needs the money from the new taxes. In 2026, 12.9 trillion rubles have been allocated for “national defense,” and another 3.91 trillion for “national security.” In total, the security forces will receive 38% of the budget. The share of spending on social support for citizens will drop to 25.1%, and on supporting the national economy to 10.9%. Both figures will be the lowest in at least the last 20 years.
“The increased tax burden will be fully used to compensate for the decline in oil and gas revenues,” write experts from the Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This year, raw material revenues to the treasury were 2 trillion rubles below plan, and the Ministry of Finance does not expect significant growth next year—9.05 trillion rubles against 8.9 trillion.
Ultimately, the tax increase will not strengthen the budget, but rather increase its instability, warn experts from the Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences: it will lead to an economic slowdown, reduced business profits, and, as a consequence, a “significant slowdown in investment.”
“The acceleration of public investment, however, does not compensate for the decline in private investment and the overall slowdown in economic growth, which, in turn, increases the instability of the budget system in the medium term,” the experts conclude.
How much more will the roaches allow themselves to be bled and drained for the vampire’s useless war?
Until they start eating each other?
Or just starve to death. Don’t expect them to have any courage to protest.
So mafia land will increase taxes to pay for weapons that will be destroyed in Ukraine. russians can say good bye to their future and thank putler for doing so much for them.
Their future is already screwed, even if the war ends today.