A major gesture: Russian business voluntarily gives part of its profits to the budget

Voluntary business contributions to the federal budget in 2026 reached 383.7 billion rubles, more than 200 times higher than the initial target. This is an additional resource for the budget against the background of a deficit of 6.455 trillion rubles. However, the current volume is largely provided by one-time large tranches, so its steady growth is unlikely. At the same time, business opposes the transformation of voluntary payments into a mandatory burden. Why taxes will remain the main source of budget revenue growth in the coming years — in the Izvestia article

Increase in contributions

According to the Electronic Budget, as of August 14, gratuitous transfers from non-governmental organizations reached 383.7 billion rubles. Initially, about 300 billion rubles were expected by the end of the year. At the same time, the total amount of federal budget revenues amounted to 22.1 trillion rubles.

Voluntary financial support from businesses is already significantly higher than last year's level: the volume turned out to be 1.5 times higher than the result for the whole of 2025, when the budget received 251.3 billion rubles.

The funds were received in separate tranches of several billion rubles each through the accounts of subsidiaries. The discussion of such contributions took place on March 26 at a private meeting between President Vladimir Putin and representatives of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. The participants of the meeting proceeded from the fact that many large businessmen started building their companies in the 1990s with active cooperation with the government. Therefore, entrepreneurs consider it necessary to support the budget with large payments.

The budget item for gratuitous receipts from non-governmental organizations appeared in 2022. At first, its main source was the mandatory payments of foreign companies when leaving the Russian market — the so-called "exit tax". In 2026, transfers from non-residents decreased, but in the spring fees increased sharply due to voluntary support from Russian entrepreneurs. The initiative, according to the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, came from the business itself: money is channeled both from the resources of companies and from the personal funds of their owners.

Russian business allocates funds based on the current capabilities of companies and the personal savings of owners. At the same time, the business community opposes the transformation of such one-time transfers into a reason for a constant increase in the tax and fiscal burden. The mechanism is considered as a voluntary measure of budget support, and not as a new mandatory payment.

Impact of contributions

Voluntary transfers from companies provide the budget with an additional but limited resource. By mid-August 2026, the federal budget deficit amounted to 6.455 trillion rubles, or 2.8% of GDP, while the volume of such payments reached about 6% of the accumulated gap. These funds make it possible to partially reduce the government's need for new loans through OFZs and thereby reduce the burden on the debt market.

The Ministry of Finance initially planned for 2026 and the next two years only 1.7 billion rubles each in gratuitous receipts from non-governmental organizations. However, by August 2026, the budget had received 383.69 billion rubles, more than 200 times more than the initial target. Such low official forecasts are due to the fact that voluntary payments cannot be guaranteed to be counted as tax revenues. An additional factor was the almost complete reduction in income from the "exit tax" for foreign companies. At the same time, the volume of contributions may reach 400-420 billion rubles by the end of the year.

The revenue side of the budget is increasingly shifting towards non-oil and gas revenues: they increased by 18.3%, reaching 17.518 trillion rubles. VAT provided the main contribution: fees increased by 24.9%, to 9.791 trillion rubles, which was facilitated by inflation and steady domestic demand. At the same time, oil and gas revenues fell by 16.8% and amounted to 4.595 trillion rubles. The Ministry of Finance attributes the decrease to lower Russian oil prices in previous periods. At the same time, the indicator remains slightly above the baseline of the budget rule — 4.467 trillion rubles.

The Ministry of Finance considers a significant part of the deficit to be the result of advanced financing: the state signs contracts ahead of time and transfers large advances to performers, so expenses may grow more slowly in the second half of the year. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance allowed the annual deficit forecast to be adjusted upward. To cover the shortage of funds, the Ministry of Finance is increasing the placement of OFZs, and this is happening with the tight monetary policy of the Central Bank. The high cost of borrowing means additional budget expenditures for servicing public debt in the future.

Future receipts

Further growth looks less sustainable, because a significant part of the current result is generated by large one-time transfers from entrepreneurs, so it will be difficult for businesses to repeat such amounts regularly. The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs insists that voluntary payments should not turn into an additional mandatory fee, especially against the background of tax reform and the already increased burden. After 2026, the government is likely to switch to increasing revenue through existing taxes, primarily income taxes. In 2027-2028, without new major agreements and summits, the volume of voluntary transfers is likely to approach the minimum planned values again — about 1.7 billion rubles per year.

Budget gratuitous receipts appeared in the Russian system relatively recently, and previously a significant share of such funds was formed by payments from foreign companies when leaving the Russian market. However, the situation is changing in 2026, Peter Shcherbachenko, an associate professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia. Such payments do not imply established KPIs and can be considered as a manifestation of business social responsibility. At the same time, not only the business itself can be a source of money: funds can be channeled from corporate resources of companies, personal capital of owners, or assets of family and corporate funds. There is no fundamental difference for the federal treasury — in any case, the funds go to the budget.

Further development can go in three directions. The first option is to maintain the one—time nature of transfers, and the second is to switch to constant interaction between the state and business, in which financing will be directed to specific socially significant tasks: housing construction for beneficiaries, integrated development of regional territories and other priority projects. The third scenario is related to a prolonged budget deficit: voluntary contributions may become established as an additional tool of fiscal policy and be considered as an alternative to further increasing the tax burden.

Such revenues can be an additional resource for the budget, but they should not turn into a permanent source that is included in the calculations in advance, Sergei Katyrin, head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia. First of all, businesses need predictable rules for several years ahead. If a voluntary payment gradually becomes expected, it actually acquires the properties of an additional fiscal burden. Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to proceed from the financial situation of large companies, the state of the economy and the budgetary situation.

Izvestia has requested inquiries from the Ministry of Energy, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Ministry of Finance, and the Central Bank, but no responses have been received at the time of publication.