Improving the Fiscal Policy of the Russian Federation in Felation to Companies Paying “Excess” Dividends

The subject of the study is the possibility of increasing the tax burden on companies whose dividends paid to shareholders exceed the amount of investments in business development.

The purpose of the article is to identify the shortcomings of the draft law proposed by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation on the introduction of an increased corporate income tax rate for Russian companies whose dividends paid to shareholders exceed the amount of investments in business development, as well as to propose measures to correct the shortcomings of the draft law. The formula proposed in the draft law under consideration for calculating the excess amount of dividends and the formula for changing the income tax rate are analyzed. The problem of too narrow definition of investments in the draft law is revealed, leading to an underestimation of this indicator. The incorrectness of comparing the balance sheet indicators of the enterprise that have developed over several years with the current indicators of dividend payments has been established. The unfairness of the abrupt increase in the tax burden as a result of the spread of increased income tax rates to the entire tax base, and not only to the amount of excess of the amounts of dividends paid over the norm calculated 

according to the formula, is noted. The incorrectness of ignoring the indicators of the consolidated financial statements has been established, since investments and dividend payments in practice are unevenly distributed within a group of related legal entities. The negative impact of turbulence in the stock and foreign exchange markets on the correctness of the calculation of excess dividends according to the formula proposed in the bill was noted.

The conclusion is made about the need for substantial revision of the draft law, the main directions of such revision are proposed.

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