Most Russians prefer to go to the resorts for the holidays. To this day, resorts in the south of Russia are popular. The introduction of resort tax is a hot topic today. They started talking about her not so long ago. An order to introduce this type of tax was given by Russian President V.V. Putin. Fees will be introduced only for those tourists who prefer to live in licensed hotels, boarding houses, motels and other official locations. When and for which subjects of the federation will the tax be introduced? What do experts and Russian tourists think of him.
Resort fee: what tax is it?
Russian law does not contain a definition of this concept. The Tax Code only defines the general concept of “collection”. However, if you turn to publicly available sources of information, you can meet the definition of this term: "the type of fee that is charged by the state on the territory of a particular resort area." This type of tax was previously established by the legislation of the RSFSR in 1991, but was canceled in 2004. Again they started talking about resort tax introduction only in 2016.
Who should pay?
According to the bill already approved, the resort tax in Russia will be paid exclusively by individuals. At the same time, it should be paid by both citizens of the Russian Federation and tourists from abroad. Persons who conduct individual entrepreneurial activities in the resort area are exempt from tax. Thus, the introduction of resort fees will affect only sanatoriums, hotels, hotels. Initially, it is planned that it will be included directly in the tour package price, and it will be possible to pay for it upon entry or exit from the accommodation.
In which Russian regions will the tax be introduced?
The project will not be implemented immediately. It is planned that a resort tax will be introduced in the Crimea, Stavropol Territory, Altai and Krasnodar Territories. Within 5 years, fees will be levied only in these constituent entities of the Russian Federation. But if the authorities recognize the experiment as successful, the tax is likely to be introduced in other resort regions.
When will they introduce?
The Russian authorities have not yet announced the exact date for the introduction of resort fees. But if you turn to the website of the Association of Tour Operators, then it contains information that the fees will be introduced in 2017, but not earlier. The introduction of a new pilot project in one of the aforementioned regions of Russia is not ruled out.
Fees
What will be the resort tax in Russia? How much will tourists pay? The answer to this question was given by the Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Anton Siluanov. According to him, the introduction of this tax is quite reasonable. Previously, information appeared that tourists would be charged a fee of 300 rubles, but the authorities considered this figure to be too high. Therefore, it is planned that the amount of fees will be about 100 rubles. It is planned that the funds will be used for the development of resorts. Moreover, the idea was supported by the Council of Federations after repeated discussions. Most likely, the size of the resort fee will be set individually in each region. But precede the introduction of fees should the adoption of the relevant federal law, which has not yet been issued.
Where will the raised funds go
The President of Russia fully supports the idea of introducing this tax. Putin also notes that resort tax is available in most countries of the world. The collected funds will be directed to the development of tourism infrastructure and spa resort. In addition, the idea was proposed to create a single fund, from where money will be directed to specific goals for the development of resorts.
Are there any benefits?
Does the resort tax require benefits? Of course! This issue has been repeatedly discussed at government meetings. However, there is no exact information about which categories of tourists will be exempted from fees. Supposedly exempted from resort tax will be:
- minors;
- persons with disabilities and their accompanying persons;
- persons who move to permanent residence or for the purpose of study, work in the resort area;
- pensioners;
- minors coming to relatives of retirement age.
Expert opinion
Despite the fact that the resort tax is introduced for the development of tourism in specific regions, experts make poor forecasts. An additional fee will lead to an inevitable increase in the cost of leisure in Russia. Given the fact that in the Crimea in recent years, vacation has already ceased to be cheap, tourists are likely to rent private housing instead of hotels. Thus, the private sector will remain shadow, and the authorities will not be able to control the real tourist flow.
About half of tourists in Crimea in 2016 lived in the private sector due to overpricing in the summer. The authorities of the Republic of Crimea note that such a trend next year will begin to gradually strengthen with each passing year. And the reason for this will be the low cost of renting private housing, compared with hotels. Patency in licensed resorts and hotels can reach a critical point.
Very indicative is the European experience of introducing a tax of 0.5 to 2 euros per day per person in Mallorca, when tour operators demanded that the local authorities cancel this fee. Tourism income from the island was significantly lower than tax revenue. Authorities had to cancel the tax.
Experts also note that due to the depreciation of the ruble and economic sanctions, Russians began to spend less money on vacation. Therefore, pricing should be flexible enough. Only in this case, the introduction of a resort tax will not affect the decrease in tourist flow.
Estimated fee will be from 50 to 100 rubles. If it will be more, tour operators will lose most of their customers, because in recent years the Crimea and Altai have become organized leisure destinations. The introduction of this tax is premature and will not contribute to the popularization of domestic tourism due to higher prices for airline tickets and hotel accommodations.
The main resorts in Russia have a very poor tourist infrastructure. People, for sure, will not believe that the funds will really go to beautification.
Resort tax: reviews of Russians
What do Russian tourists think of the new tax? Most Russians oppose the introduction of a tax because they believe that the level of tourism infrastructure will remain the same, since most of the funds will likely go to the maintenance of organizations that will manage the improvement. At the same time, rest in Turkey or Egypt with a high level of service will cost in this case even cheaper than in Russia. Therefore, the introduction of resort fees completely discourages Russians from having a vacation in their homeland.
Thus, resort tax is a new type of fee that will be levied on tourists vacationing in some regions of Russia. Most experts consider its introduction inappropriate and untimely, because the cost of recreation will increase markedly. However, the introduction of this type of tax is still in the nature of the draft; an official law does not yet exist.