Russia plans to introduce a fee for online advertising

According to the project, the fee for the “distribution of advertising and promotion services” on the Internet will increase the financing of the national project “Data Economy and Digital Transformation of the State.”

In addition, if necessary, the authorities may increase the mandatory deduction rate (non-fiscal payment) of telecommunications operators to the universal service reserve, the money from which will be allocated to the same national project, the document says. .

The national project “Data Economy and Digital Transformation of the State” will start in 2025. Its financing should amount to at least 700 billion rubles. The national project also includes the construction of 5G networks.

There is currently no fee charged for online advertising, but it must be marked. Its distributors, advertisers and intermediaries are obliged to transfer data on advertising campaigns to the Unified Internet Advertising Registry (ERIR). You can enter information into ERIR only through advertising data operators (VK, Sber, MTS and other companies have them), which since their appearance began to charge for services, writes Kommersant.

How will this affect the advertising market?

The introduction of a tax on online advertising will lead to a forced increase in prices, Yandex told the newspaper. A company representative noted that advertisers will have to compensate for additional expenses, which could lead to an increase in the cost of goods and services.

The CEO of advertising group Kokoc Group, Alexander Shokurov, said the payment “will hit the pockets of the entire industry.” Currently, the group spends approximately 200 million rubles a year on compliance with the law on labeling online advertising.

A Kommersant source on the telecommunications market said that the mandatory deduction rate for telecommunications operators has not increased over the years of the reserve’s existence, but increasing it will increase the “already increased burden” for operators. It was previously reported that in 2025 the corporate income tax will increase from 20% to 25% and, starting in 2024, discounts on frequency rates for LTE will be canceled.