Tax impact on consumption inequality in the context of ensuring Russia's economic security

Inequality of Russian citizens is one of the threats to economic security. Since the 1990s, no significant progress has been made in reducing inequality in Russia. The Gini coefficient for income inequality consistently exceeds 0.4, and it reaches 0.9 for inequality in the distribution of wealth. The results of a sociological survey conducted in the summer of 2022 show that Russians perceive income inequality to be weaker than it actually is. Within the framework of the consumption economy, the inequality of citizens' consumption is most pronounced. In 2021, the final consumption expenses of the tenth decile group (55.3 thousand rubles) exceeded the expenses of the first group (6.9 thousand rubles) by 8 times, while it is important that the marginal propensity to consume among the poor is higher than among the rich. Indirect taxation in Russia has no effect on smoothing the citizens' inequality. The potential of VAT rates' differentiation in reducing inequality has not been realized. Proposals to improve VAT to smooth out consumption inequality in order to ensure the economic security of the state have been formed. Funding. The article was prepared with the financial support of the grant of the President of the Russian Federation for young Russian scientists No. MK-2397.2022.2.

inequality, welfare, Gini coefficient, tax, VAT, inequality smoothing