Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.21 /Trend/
Leyla Abdullayeva, Trend Analytic Center Expert
Luxury tax, which is discussed currently, may be imposed next year in Russia. Homes, yachts, cars according to their market prices will be taxed primarily. However, with the introduction of this innovation the country sees the risks of first, avoiding of the wealthy citizens from paying this tax, and secondly, the introduction of the planned government tax on luxuries may be a cause of general emigration of the richest people in the country.
There have been examples of such failures of tax increase for the richest in history. The question of richest buyers' emigration can be as sharp as in the U.S. in the late 90th, when a tax on luxury items was approved by the U.S. Congress. However, the tax lasted only three years - it had to be eliminated, since the Americans have simply stopped making expensive purchases at home, preferring to buy expensive products with no additional charges abroad. Three-percent tax on expensive cars worth more than $40,000 remained, but it was also canceled in 2003.
Luxury tax was introduced on the Italian island of Sardinia in 2006. Local owners of villas, yachts and private jets were required to pay it. The amount of tax on yachts and houses was calculated taking into account their size and each takeoff or landing of private plane worth 200 - 1000 euros depending on the type of aircraft to the owner. The tax was partly eliminated in 2009: Smart billionaires leaved their ships far away from the island.
Spain "remembered" a luxury tax, cancelled in 2008, in September 2011. Temporarily government reintroduced a tax on property valued more than 700 000 euros, hoping to replenish the treasury by 1.08 billion euros a year. The differential: minimum interest rate is 0.2 percent maximum is 2.5 percent (for those who own assets worth over 10.7 million euros).
A similar tax exists in Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and France.
Luxury tax was adopted in Greece, which one of the first became the victim of the debt crisis in 2010. Tax Service of Greece is inspecting housing estates in Athens searching swimming pools from a helicopter. According to The Daily Telegraph reported that the owners are trying to use net for camouflage. However, the tax officers counted several thousand pools, whereas only three hundred are stated in the documents for the fiscal services.
In short, the introduction of such a tax on goods of luxury class, requires, first, to provide incentives such as tax amnesty, additional service, which would be carefully watch over their owners, and secondly, to enhance the system of declaration of income.