Russian Law-Maker Advocates Additional Taxation of Childless People
Lt Gen Andrey Gurulev, a prominent member of the State Duma Defense Committee, spoke in favor of reinstating the Soviet-era practice of imposing higher taxes on people who have no children, citing concern for orphans. “I understand that if a tax on childlessness is imposed, it will be quite possible to direct money of those who do not wish to have children towards children left without parents,” he told Tsargrad.
The general is not the first Duma member to contemplate such a policy, as the subject has recently been promoted by his colleagues from the ruling party.
Researchers with the Russian State Social University have found that increasing tax rates for childless people would be very effective at improving demographic metrics in the country, the university’s first deputy chief Dzhomart Aliev told reporters on Friday. Rather than being a single tax, childlessness taxation might take the form of higher rates for various existing taxes. In the researchers’ model, childless individuals as young as those in their mid-20’s would have their rates increased:
• by 3 percentage points for the personal income tax,
• by 5 p.p. for the inheritance tax,
• by 0.5 p.p. for the property tax.
Couples suffering from fertility issues would be expected to adopt, if they seek to avoid the additional taxation.
Meanwhile, several bills have been submitted to the State duma to outlaw propaganda of “child-free ideology.” This attack on free speech is sponsored by the speakers of both chambers of the Russian parliament, which indicates a high likelihood of the bills becoming law.
The original tax on childlessness was introduced by Joseph Stalin in 1941, following the Soviet Union’s invasion by Axis armies, and was enforced almost to the very end of the Communist regime. It was a 6% income tax affecting men from the age of 25 to 50, and married women from 20 to 45 years of age.
According to official statistics, as of 2023, the Russian Federation’s fertility rate plunged to 1.410, which is lower than in Europe and North America. In three years preceding the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the country’s fertility rate was stable at 1.505. In the meantime, Russian casualties in the war number in the hundreds of thousands (with 72,000 of the killed being known by names, thanks to BBC/Mediazona open-source monitoring) – which raises concerns about further demographic trends.