Russia is discussing a sizeable increase in the “exit tax” for foreign firms, RBC reports from Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian authorities are discussing raising the one-time contribution that foreign companies leaving the country must make to the state budget to 40 percent from 15 percent, RBC daily reported on Friday, citing four sources.

Russia has steadily tightened exit requirements for foreign companies since Western sanctions were imposed following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, demanding deep discounts on any deal before giving the go-ahead and taking part of the sale price to shore up state coffers. called the “exit tax” by Washington.

Budget contributions from exit deals by foreign companies reached nearly 140 billion rubles ($1.51 billion) by the end of August, budget data showed, already surpassing last year’s total of 116.5 billion rubles. rubles.

Reuters reported last year that some foreign companies trying to leave Russia were facing a big increase in costs as Moscow demanded bigger discounts, well above the minimum 50% threshold initially required.

The “exit tax” was originally set at 10%, but has crept up to 15%. Now, the government’s foreign asset sales commission is considering a “significant increase,” RBC said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Two people RBC spoke to said the contribution could be increased to 40%.

“We are constantly discussing the effectiveness of the subcommittee’s work and approaches to review transactions,” the finance ministry said in response to a request for comment. “At this time, no new decisions have been made.”

One of RBC’s sources said the need to increase the budget contribution resulted from cases where the valuation used was very cheap, thus limiting possible collections.