Distribution of income tax and social contribution burden in Russia

Introduction: the period between 2000 to 2020 was marked by serious changes in taxation in the Russian Federation. The consequences of these changes for both the budget system and residents of Russia are still poorly studied, in particular, with reference to the impact of changes in social contribution rates and the introduction of various tax benefits on reducing income inequality. Such studies are necessary for both determining the degree of distortion in various incentives by tax policy measures and evaluating the effectiveness of these measures. Objectives: to assess the tax burden on individuals and households in order to determine the degree to which tax reforms comply with the originally stated goals, primarily, in terms of fairness criteria. Methods: analysis of distribution curves, regression analysis. Results: the tax wedge assessments based on the survey data revealed the differences between the actual level of the tax burden and the formal tax burden as well as tax evasion typical for low-income groups of the population. At the same time, there were no significant differences found in the tax burden distribution in individuals and households. Conclusions: the taxation system for individuals in Russia is regressive. The results obtained turned out to be robust to the choice of specifications of the estimated equations. It is important to note that there is a relatively high degree of regressiveness of the taxation scale in terms of insurance premiums and, at the same time, a bell-shaped dependence of the tax burden on the size of the payroll.