Russia’s Finance Ministry is working on technology to implement a digital excise tax on tobacco and beer, reports Interfax.

Russia’s State Secretary and Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Sazanov has said that the Finance Ministry was working on developing a technology for digital excise tax on tobacco and beer. The statement was made at a meeting with foreign businesses at the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia where the different parties were discussing tax policies.
“It is assumed that the tax service will automatically calculate tax liabilities when products are released into circulation, as based on data that is in the information systems for labelling tobacco and beer. This should further reduce the number of disputes between taxpayers and the tax service,” Sazanov said of the project.
In taking this step towards further digitalizing and expanding the practice of transferring tax-calculation functions to the tax authorities administration can be greatly simplified which has already been done in other sectors. “This has already been implemented for the majority of property taxes,” said Sazanov.