Tax Concessions

complete or partial exemptions from taxes enjoyed by legal and physical persons.

Tax concessions are established by the state. Both in precapitalist formations and under capitalism, tax concessions have been enjoyed primarily by representatives of the ruling classes. In many capitalist states, for example, high nontaxable minimums and special additional deductions are used in calculating the inheritance tax.

In the socialist countries, such factors as form of ownership, size and source of income, and personal taxpaying category are taken into account in determing tax concessions. In the USSR, for example, cooperative enterprises and kolkhozes are entirely exempt from taxes on certain types of income. The income tax provides for a nontaxable minimum income of up to 60 rubles a month. In 1972, in a number of regions of the country where the minimum wage of production and office workers was raised to 70 rubles a month, the nontaxable minimum was also raised to this level and the tax rate on wages up to 90 rubles a month was decreased on the average by more than one-third.

Also exempt from taxation are pensions; awards for discoveries, inventions, and efficiency proposals of not more than 1,000 rubles; awards that accompany Lenin, State, and Lenin Komsomol prizes; and gains acquired through state bonds and lotteries. Tax concessions are also given to citizens with large families and to invalids. Certain objects of taxation, such as unusable parcels of land and certain types of property or building, are tax exempt. In a number of cases, tax concessions are established to stimulate particular types of production or manufacturing.