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State Duma turns down bill exempting certain owners of small land plots from land tax

The bill was initiated by lawmakers with the A Just Russia faction in the State Duma

Photo ITAR-TASS/Vladimir Smirnov

Photo ITAR-TASS/Vladimir Smirnov

MOSCOW, October 11 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian State Duma lower parliament house on Friday voted down a bill exempting owners of land plots of less than 800 square metres from the land tax.

The bill was initiated by lawmakers with the A Just Russia faction in the State Duma. It envisaged not to recognize land plots owned by individuals who are not self-engaged businessmen as items of taxation.

Chairman of the State Duma budget and taxes committee Andrei Makarov of the ruling United Russia party recalled that the State Duma had already discussed a similar bill and turned it down on April 27, 2012. According to Makarov, the bill is silent on how to compensate local self-governments for shortfalls in incomes that “will be very big.” Apart from that, there is a possibility that bigger land plots can be broken into 800-square-meter plots, and “the land tax will vanish as such,” he added.

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