Repik proposes inheritance tax discussion for businesses with assets above 10 billion rubles

Delovaya Rossiya head Alexey Repik said a proposed inheritance tax should target large businesses rather than apartments or bank balances. In an RBC interview, he suggested a threshold of 10 billion rubles in company balance-sheet assets.

Repik said the group's experts were seeking tax incentives to raise Russia's stock-market capitalisation to 66% of GDP. Other participants in the discussion favour more radical thresholds, he said.

RBC had reported on 52 proposals prepared by Delovaya Rossiya for its October 15 forum. They included inheritance and gift taxation from a tax base of 50 million rubles, rates differentiated by family relationship and exemptions for continuously operating businesses. The 10 billion-ruble threshold is Repik's own position in that debate.

Repik wants publicly traded companies exempted. He offered a hypothetical 22% rate as an example: heirs forced to sell shares to pay tax could damage the company's market value and other investors. He did not announce an approved tax rate.

The suggested introduction period is 2031–2032. Repik said businesses should have about five years to prepare and an opportunity to go public before ownership passes to heirs.

He nevertheless described an IPO under current conditions as the most expensive and difficult financing option. His aim is to encourage more public companies and a greater supply of shares, even with a small free float. He estimated that individuals and businesses hold around 130 trillion rubles in bank accounts, some of which could reach the stock market.

Repik also said the programme had only a limited connection to the forum's agenda, apart from investment tax deductions. The group does not propose ending experimental tax regimes early, he said, although it wants discussion of future small-business taxation.

Russia currently has no general tax on receiving an inheritance. The proposed changes have not been adopted. The Finance Ministry told RBC that the initiatives required further comprehensive examination.