Russians Continue To Accept “Gray” Wages

Forty-five percent of Russians do not refuse “gray” wages, despite the fact that it may lead to criminal consequences for evading tax payments on the income. These were the results of a poll taken by the research center of the Internet recruiting portal “SuperJob.ru.”

Russians justify taking the risk of ending up behind bars with a noble reason – being able to provide for their family. It is worth noting that, for the most part, men feel the need to take financial responsibility for their family (53%) more so than women (36%.) The poll revealed that the age of most of these potential law-breakers was between 30 and 40. For understandable reasons, those nearing retirement age were more likely to refuse to accept money under-the-table. Another important argument in favor of official salaries is the fact that a company needs to be transparent with in it's banking transactions in order to receive credit on beneficial terms. In total, 23% of Russians were against illegal salary payments according to the poll. About one-third of the respondents (32%) found it too difficult to answer. They claimed that their answer depended on the size of the salary as well as their living circumstances.

The research revealed that, the situation being what it is, Russians also looked for some sort of compromise to the tax issue: some of the respondents said that, although they would not refuse “gray” wages, they would make the appropriate tax deductions themselves based on the size of their income.

However, it must be pointed out that, according to the Russian Federation’s Tax Code, the responsibility of paying taxes on income belongs to the employer and not to the employee, but since when have the tax authorities been bothered by such trivialities?