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- Collection from guests: regions will be able to change the rate of tourist tax by seasons
Collection from guests: regions will be able to change the rate of tourist tax by seasons
Local authorities will be able to change the tourist tax rate on a quarterly basis, taking into account seasonality, the Ministry of Finance has explained. From 2025, the subjects have the right to decide whether to introduce a levy for visitors - it is expected that 55 regions will use this option from January. In 2025, the maximum tax percentage will be 1%, and by 2029 it will increase to 5% of the cost of hotel accommodation per day. The right to differentiate the size of the fee is due to climate and socio-economic characteristics of tourist destinations, said the Ministry of Finance. Experts expect that most subjects will use this option, but not in capital cities. How the new fee will affect domestic tourism - in the material "Izvestia".
Tourist tax in 2025
The rate of tourist tax, which will appear in Russia in 2025, can be differentiated taking into account seasonality - local authorities will be able to set the percentage of the fee quarterly, according to an explanatory letter from the Ministry of Finance of November 29 (Izvestia has it).
The tourist tax will replace the tourist fee, which is now collected in five regions. Local authorities (municipal governments) will determine whether to introduce it and in what amount: however, it should be no less than 100 rubles and no more than the maximum threshold established at the federal level. In 2025, the threshold will amount to 1% of the cost of living and will be increased by 1% annually until 2029. Thus, in five years and beyond this indicator will amount to 5%.
It is assumed that the differentiated rate will work as follows: for example, in the I and IV quarters of 2025 (January-March, October-December), local authorities can charge only 0.5% or no tax at all, and in the seasons popular for tourism (April-September) - the maximum 1%.
The tax will have to be paid by hotels and other places of accommodation (whereas now the tourist tax is collected from tourists). At the same time, if travelers are federal privileges (disabled, heroes of the USSR) and participants of the Social Security Organization, they will not be charged anything extra. Revenues from the tourist tax will go to local budgets.
Giving authority to municipalities to differentiate tourist tax rates is due to its nature - it is a local tax, said "Izvestia" in the press service of the Ministry of Finance. In addition, such a measure is aimed at taking into account climatic and socio-economic features of the regions when taxing, including, for example, the volume of tourist traffic during high/low seasons, they added. The editorial board sent an inquiry to the Federal Tax Service.
It is expected that in 2025 tourist tax will be introduced in 55 regions, reported in the Russian Union of Travel Industry. In most of them it will operate in individual municipalities, that is, not on the entire territory, but in regional centers, such as in Arkhangelsk, Vladikavkaz, Yekaterinburg, or popular places - in particular, in the ski resort "Sheregesh" in Kuzbass, in Sochi in the Krasnodar region, in the village "Listvyanka" in the Irkutsk region. Across the whole subject, the fee will be introduced in Altai, Kamchatka, Karelia and the Vologda region.
"Izvestia" sent a request to the regions asking them to share their plans for the distribution of the tax. The press services of the Tyumen and Yaroslavl regions, as well as the Republic of Crimea said that there are no plans to introduce a tourist tax yet. The administration of Rostov region said that municipalities will consider changing the rate depending on the season. In Chuvashia shared that Cheboksary, Novocheboksarsk and Cheboksary District will introduce the fee, while the rate will not change depending on the season.
The Altai Republic referred to the words of the head of the subject Andrei Turchak that additional revenues from the levy are expected in the amount of 50 million in 2025, and after 2028 - at least 200-300 million annually. He added that the funds will be used for improvement and socially important objects.
How the tourist tax will affect vacationers
The Ministry of Finance said that it is premature to estimate revenues from the tourist tax. It will depend on the number of subjects that will introduce it and the parameters set by them. Most likely, the tax will allow regions (especially southern regions) to significantly increase their revenues, according to Natalia Milchakova, a leading analyst at Freedom Finance Global.
It is likely that many subjects will use a differentiated scale. The expert added: such an option is more fair, since in Russia the tourist business is not always year-round.
- For example, in winter, tourist life in the Krasnodar region, except for Sochi, as well as in the Crimea comes to a standstill. Hotels, inns and sanatoriums, if not empty, are severely underloaded, while tourists go to Moscow, St. Petersburg and ski resorts for New Year vacations. Therefore, it is logical that in the southern regions during the calm period the tax will be lower, and during the period of increased influx of vacationers - higher, - estimated Natalia Milchakova.
At the same time, Moscow, Sochi and St. Petersburg are almost always full, she continued. Therefore, most likely, the tax rate in these cities will not vary greatly depending on the season. Except that in St. Petersburg the maximum percentage will be on white nights.
In turn, researcher of the Presidential Academy Darina Medvednikova is sure that most regions will benefit from leaving the maximum tax rate for the whole year. She explained: the tourist industry is not by calendar quarters, but by seasons and holidays. Therefore, to differentiate the rate every three months, given that almost all quarters have weekends, does not make sense. At the beginning of the year it is gender holidays, in the second quarter - May holidays, then comes the high summer season, and at the end of the year there is the Day of National Unity.
On vacationers in 2025 differentiated rate and the fee itself will not affect very noticeably, because the limit will be 1% of the cost of accommodation, says Natalia Milchakova. But in the future, as the threshold grows for tourists the amount will become more sensitive - because hotels will put the payment in the cost of accommodation, she believes.
As calculated by the Russian Union of Travel Industry, based on the average cost of accommodation in a Russian hotel per day in 5 thousand rubles, the number of vacationers and days of accommodation, as well as if all regions will introduce this tax, it could bring the budget system 18 billion rubles annually, shared Natalia Milchakova.
In general, the new tax is a way to get additional money for the development of the region and a particular municipality, which is especially important in the development of domestic tourism, said Julia Kovalenko, associate professor at Plekhanov Russian Economic University. She is sure: citizens will pay this fee, as it will not significantly affect the total cost of travel, at least in 2025. Then it will increase gradually, which will smooth out the feeling of rising cost of living.
