Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to increase spending on health and infrastructure. Pay this, it may have to the Russians themselves. The government returned to discuss the restructuring of the tax system. As a result, the income tax will increase, there will be a trade charge from turnover, a VAT exemption for social goods will be canceled or VAT will increase if the social insurance contributions. These issues were recently discussed at a meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev behind closed doors, Vedomosti reports citing informed sources in the government. Final decisions to raise taxes have not yet been taken, the discussion continues. One of the options to increase revenues to the treasury is to raise the personal income tax rate (PIT) by 2 percentage points to 15%, but at the same time to introduce a non-taxable minimum income. In the government last fall, the consequences of such a step were analyzed. For example, it can slow down the growth of wages and provoke a return to payment of salaries in envelopes. The RF Ministry of Finance again proposed to conduct two tax maneuvers. The first for oilmen is to zero the export duty with an increase in the tax on the extraction of minerals. The second for the whole economy is to reduce the insurance premiums that the employer pays from employees' salaries, up to 22% in exchange for VAT growth to the same 22%. The load on the company will thereby decrease slightly, but prices for many goods and services may increase. As a result, inflation will jump, and money will depreciate. Another option of tax maneuver may be the introduction of a trade levy on turnover with a reduction in insurance premiums. This will help the business out of the shadow and lead to an increase in budget revenues. According to officials, the treasury in 2019-2020. additionally receive almost 450 billion rubles. Now in Russia there is a preferential VAT rate of 10%, which applies to food, goods for children and medicines. By the year 2020. losses from this benefit will reach 600 billion rubles. Officials propose to abandon it, because the main benefit is not so much poor families as producers and sellers. Therefore, it is better to replace this benefit with a direct subsidy from the budget. In addition, it is necessary to combine numerous payments into a single universal benefit for the poor. So social support will become more targeted - as the president asked in a message to the Federal Assembly. Nevertheless, the abolition of the tax benefit will significantly raise prices. The fulfillment of presidential instructions will require approximately 1.5% of GDP. Of these, 1% will be obtained through accelerating economic growth, the rest - due to savings and tax increases. Experts warn officials: any increase in the tax burden will affect the incomes of the population and reduce consumption. This will lead to an increase in the number of poor and a reduction in the middle class. That consumption last year was the main driver of economic growth. With the increase in taxes, even the growth of incomes will not help: the population will again begin to shrink, causing the economy to stop growing.