Quite often, residents of countries that emerged on the site of the USSR have to face a problem when their accumulations lose their value in connection with the development of inflationary processes. They are characterized by the inflation tax category. Its peculiarity is manifested in the fact that the appropriation of this tax is predetermined by the issuing center that caused it. Since today emission centers are created, controlled and managed by the state, this tax can also be considered a hidden tax, which is not established as an institutional phenomenon.
Its mechanism of action is such that the inflationary tax affects the poorest and middle sections of society to a greater extent, and the rich to a lesser extent. This is due to the fact that the former have incomes that come to them in the form of wages, benefits, that is, those that are fixed in value. Sometimes it happens that the inflation rate simply does not allow indexing the income of these groups of people. In this case, many economists characterize the inflation tax as regressive, that is, one whose rate becomes lower as the physical size of the income grows.
The nature of this tax is as follows. As new money supply is printed for a purpose, for example, to create the appearance of good economic income in society, inflation begins to increase in the economic system. Its most obvious sign is a significant increase in the amount of money in circulation, and, in fact, this state forces everyone who has money to pay inflation tax.
Thus, almost all governments in the world are debtors, because they constantly owe more than they owe them. Inflation, as it were, smooths out this debt, that is, it makes the previous debt not so noticeable and memorable as the one acting at a given moment in time, but at the same time, tax revenues increase. So it turns out to be an almost paradoxical situation when the government has the opportunity to improve the ratio of debt to income precisely through such a disastrous phenomenon for the population as inflation. Nevertheless, if the government continues to pursue a policy of borrowing money and selling debts under any debt obligations and at the same time continue to issue money, this money will lose its purchasing power and will no longer be in demand by creditors. It should also be borne in mind that such a tax is not always of a nature caused by emission.
Another feature of inflation tax is that it is not collected by specially created bodies that form the state tax system. Its collection does not require such a special apparatus, and it goes to the budget directly.
In other cases, other taxes are levied by specially authorized bodies or persons who collect taxes. According to the legislation in force in the Russian Federation, these are state executive bodies, local executive committees, as well as other bodies and individuals authorized by them. These tax collectors, in addition to actually collecting taxes, also act as regulatory authorities, whose competence also includes control over the completeness and timeliness of payment. Do not confuse tax collectors with tax agents. The main difference is that collectors withhold taxes only from those directly stipulated by law.
Another of the peculiar tax groups are bank taxes. According to the laws of the Russian Federation, they are paid by commercial banks, as well as other credit institutions that have received an appropriate license. The issuance of such licenses is the responsibility of the Central Bank of Russia. The object of taxation when levying this tax is such income of banks as interest on loans, fees for the provision of credit resources and other operations.