14.07.2011
DECISION
Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation
Dismissing the complaint of Mr. ____________________ claiming
violation of his constitutional rights under article 224, section 3 of
the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.
Saint Petersburg 14 July 2011
The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, consisting of
Chairman V. D. Zorkin, Justices K. V. Aranovsky, A. I. Boitsov, N. S.
Bondar, G. A. Gadzhiyev, Yu. M. Danilov, L. M. Zharkova, G. A. Zhilin,
S. M. Kazantsev, M. I. Kleandrov, S. D. Knyazev, A. N. Kokotov, L. O.
Krasavchikova, S. P. Mavrin, N. V. Melnikov, Yu. D. Rudkin, O. S.
Khokhryakova, V. G. Yaroslavtsev,
Having considered, by demand of Mr. ____________________, the issue of
the possibility of considering his claim in a proceeding of the
Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation,
Has established as follows:
1. In his complaint to the Constitutional Court of the Russian
Federation, Mr. ____________________ disputes the
constitutionality of the words "at a rate of 30 percent" in
section 3 of article 224, Tax Rates, chapter 23, Tax on the Income
of Natural Persons, of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.
According to the complainant, the imposition of a personal income tax
at the rate of 30 percent to citizens of the Russian Federation who
are not tax residents of the Russian Federation amounts to
discrimination on the basis of place of residence, and causes an
incommensurate restriction on property rights, and therefore violates
articles 8 (part 2), 15 (part 1), 19, 35 (part 2), and 55 (parts 2 and
3) of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as article
14 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms and article 1 of Protocol 1 to said Convention.
2. The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, having studied
the materials presented by Mr. ____________________, finds no
grounds for accepting his complaint for trial.
According to the interconnected provisions of articles 8 (part 2), 19
(parts 1 and 2), and 57 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation,
the regulation of tax relations must comply with the requirements of
the constitutional principle of equality. This means that the law must
provide legal guarantees that equal persons subject to taxation be
taxed at equal rates. The Tax Code of the Russian Federation also
follows these requirements, providing that taxes and duties cannot be
discriminatory in character, and may not be applied variously with
reference to social, racial, national, religious, or other similar
criteria, and prohibiting the establishment of differentiated tax and
duty rates and tax exemptions depending on forms of ownership,
citizenship of natural persons, or place of origination of capital
(article 3, section 1 and paragraphs 1 and 2 of section 2).
At the same time, due to the legal position of the Constitutional
Court of the Russian Federation, as expressed in a number of its
decisions, including Resolution 7-P, dated 27 April 2001, the
principle of equality does not exclude the possibility that various
legal conditions may be established for various categories of rights
bearers. Applying this legal position, which bears general
significance for all areas of legal regulation, to the field of tax
relations leads to the conclusion that the constitutional principle of
equality does not prevent the legislature from using a differentiated
approach to establishing various systems of taxation for different
categories of taxpayers, as long as the differentiation is based on
objective factors such as economic characteristics of the tax base and
the peculiarities of the taxpayers qua taxpayers.
The legislature, in setting personal income tax rates in article 224
of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, varied them according to
the source of income and category of taxpayer: whether the taxpayer
qualifies as a tax resident of the Russian Federation. According to
article 207 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which defines
payers of the personal income tax, a natural person's qualification as
a tax resident of the Russian Federation does not depend on his or her
citizenship: natural persons who are actually present in the Russian
Federation for at least 183 calendar days during a continuous
twelve-month period qualify as tax residents. Furthermore, persons who
are not tax residents of the Russian Federation qualify as payers of
the tax only for income from sources within the Russian Federation,
while tax residents of the Russian Federation are required to pay the
tax on income from sources both within the Russian Federation and from
sources outside the Russian Federation (article 207, section 1 and
article 209 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
Thus, in this case the setting of differentiated personal income tax
rates is based on an objective criterion characterizing a natural
person's connection with the tax jurisdiction of the Russian
Federation, and may not be considered discriminatory toward citizens
of the Russian Federation on the basis of their place of residence.
Therefore, we cannot agree with the complainant's assertion that the
disputed legal provision violates his constitutional rights.
On the basis of the foregoing and pursuant to article 40, part 2;
article 43, part 1, section 2; article 79, part 1; article 96; and
article 97 of the Federal Constitutional Law, "On the Constitutional
Court of the Russian Federation," the Constitutional Court of the
Russian Federation hereby:
Decides:
1. To dismiss the complaint of Mr. ___________________ on the grounds
that it does not comply with the requirements of the Federal
Constitutional Law, "On the Constitutional Court of the Russian
Federation," under which a complaint to the Constitutional Court
of the Russian Federation may be considered acceptable.
2. The decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation
on this complaint is final, and is not subject to appeal.
Chairman
Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation V. D. Zorkin
No. 949-O-O
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