Going into the Duma elections, the Kremlin promised it would not raise taxes. Four days after the polls closed it raised taxes. And a lot of them. Challenge by a journalist at a press conference to explain the about turn, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov deadpanned: “No comment.”

The government needs the money. The budget deficit is already well over the start of this year’s target and heaviest spending months of the year still lie ahead.

Russia's Finance Ministry has proposed higher taxes on savings income and foreign online shopping, four days after a State Duma election that returned the ruling party with a two-thirds majority.

The measures, part of the 2027-2029 budget package the ministry has sent to the government, would move "passive" income - dividends, interest on deposits, gains on securities and digital assets, property sales and gifts - into the main personal income tax base, taxing it on the progressive 13-22% scale instead of the current flat 13% and 15%. Savers with deposits of up to RUB1mn ($11,850) and soldiers who have fought in the war in Ukraine would be exempt. The ministry puts the number of people affected at about 4mn, some 6% of Russians with taxable income, and says income should be taxed according to its size rather than its source.

A second proposal would charge the full 22% VAT on goods bought from foreign online stores from 2027, collected by the marketplaces themselves, rather than the phased increase discussed earlier, and add a RUB100 ($1.18) fee on parcels from abroad worth up to €200, which currently enter duty-free, Vedomosti reported. The ministry says the aim is a level playing field for domestic retailers and a more transparent economy.

The timing suggests the announcement came after the vote to avoid a campaign fought over household bills, although that is an editorial inference. The state needs the money. The state auditor expects 2026 revenue to come in RUB1.6 trillion ($19bn) short of plan, all of it from oil and gas, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has conceded the deficit will be at least double its original target, and the new three-year budget is built on $50 oil, with Siluanov promising to find revenue by making taxation "fairer".

Two weeks earlier the Kremlin had ruled rises out. Asked on September 9 whether taxes would go up to plug the deficit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said "there was no talk of that" and that macroeconomic stability was "absolutely ensured", Vedomosti reported. Asked about the Finance Ministry's package on September 24, he declined to discuss it.

"You need to contact the government, the Finance Ministry. They are the authors of the draft document, and so it is for them to comment," Peskov said.

Business is being asked to pay too. The ministry has proposed a one-off levy of 30% on the extra income mining and metals companies earned in 2025 from higher world prices compared with 2024, and 20% for gold miners, covering producers of precious and non-ferrous metals and fertilisers, Interfax reported. Shares in non-ferrous metals and gold producers fell on the news.

Household bills are rising as well. The Economy Ministry's new macroeconomic forecast pencils in an average 11% increase in regulated utility tariffs on July 1, 2027, up from the 8.7% it projected previously, followed by 8.6% in 2028 and 7.6% in 2029, against 7.1% and 6.1% before, Meduza reported. The ministry blamed higher inflation and bigger rises in gas and electricity prices. The 9.9% increase due on October 1 this year is unchanged.

Car buyers face a 10-20% increase in the recycling fee, the levy charged on new and imported vehicles, from January 1, 2027, the Industry and Trade Ministry said on September 23, the next step in an indexation schedule that runs to 2030, BFM reported.

Families with fewer children will also pay more for their homes. From October 1 the subsidised family mortgage, the flagship of the Kremlin's effort to reverse a collapsing birth rate, will charge rates linked to family size. Outside the two capital regions, a family with one child will pay 10%, falling to 8% for two, 6% for three, 4% for four and 2% for five or more, with loan caps rising from RUB6mn ($71,100) to RUB10mn ($118,500). In Moscow, St Petersburg and their surrounding regions rates run from 12% to 4% and loans reach RUB18mn ($213,300). The subsidy will be capped at 15 years, and maximum monthly payments on new loans could rise by 85-139% for most families, Kommersant calculated. Russia's fertility rate is among the lowest in its history, part of a global demographic crisis squeezing most of the developed world.

The rich already pay more under the five-tier income tax scale introduced in 2025, though the top rate has barely touched the wealthiest. Former Lukoil co-owner Leonid Fedun was Russia's largest personal income taxpayer in 2025 with an estimated bill of RUB12.19bn ($144mn) on income of RUB94.15bn ($1.12bn), most of it from selling his Lukoil shares, followed by Novatek's Leonid Mikhelson on RUB7.25bn ($86mn), according to a Forbes ranking of 19 people who paid more than RUB1bn, Kommersant reported.