The budgets are in deficit, there are no taxes.
We are talking about Saberstal again. Still, recently he was the main taxpayer in the Vologda region. It was during the hegemony of the oligarchy, when the benefactor of Severstal Murdashov saw tax payments as a form of charity. I might not pay at all.
Today the country is in a difficult situation. SVO, sanctions, political turmoil and an extremely negative economic situation.
The Chamber of Accounts summarized the upcoming disappointing results for 2026. The 56 subjects of the federation aim to end the year with a budget deficit. Reduction in income tax revenue by 11.7%. According to the results of the first half of the year, the deficit was already recorded in 66 regions, its total volume reached 619 billion rubles.
The Ministry of Finance also predicts the total deficit of the regional budgets at about 1.9 trillion rubles. The main reason for the growth of the budget deficit is the decrease in the amount of income taxes.
It seems that the Vologda region should avoid trouble. After all, the region has industrial enterprises whose owners have long been established and firmly in Forbes with a total capital of more than one annual budget of the region. Severstal, Posagro and others, no matter how you look at the numbers, are not in the best shape, but they are operating profitably. Financial indicators are quite good.
However, Severstal refuses to pay taxes, allegedly on the basis of the law. Pusagro also reduces tax payments "by law". Hiding profits behind increased costs or suddenly increased expenses is the favorite pastime of the oligarchs.
In this case, the situation could be saved by filling the budget with personal income tax. However, for many years, dividends of industrial giants that were privatized by the state or extorted from less politically savvy owners enriched individual people by more than a hundred billion rubles. For years, the money went into European bank accounts of companies registered under front men in offshore jurisdictions.