Tax collectors demand education tax from parents of children who suffered in Beslan

The tax service demands that parents of the children-victims of the Beslan terror act in 2004 should pay taxes on their free-of-charge training at the "Podmoskovny" College in Koralovo founded by Mikhail Khodorkovskiy and financed by YUKOS, as Ella Kesaeva, chair of the "Voice of Beslan", reports.

We remind you that back in last December, the victims of the Beslan terror act started to receive letters from the local tax inspection that they should compensate to the state 13 percent of the training cost of former children-hostages.

The tax service regarded the money spent to support and train their children as their parents' incomes. The parents are ready to challenge the claims, which make from 50 to 70 thousand roubles per family per year.

"The local tax service told us that the demand arrived from Moscow, and they can do nothing with it," Ella Kesaeva said on air of the "Echo Moskvy" Radio. "When we received the letter from the tax service, we were just shocked. In due time, we signed agreements on gratuitous education. They ran that it was charitable assistance."

The requests warn the Beslan residents that should the taxes be ignored, all the measures as stipulated by the legislation will be applied to them.

Ms Kesaeva also does not understand, why the tax has been accrued at once for several years of education, from 2005 to 2007, but the requests are presented only in 2009.

At the same time, Irina Yasina, a member of the Board under the President on Civil Society and Human Rights, believes that the tax service acts under the law: "It's really an income, since a person who doesn't pay for his child's education receives it as a gift, while a gift is an income and should be taxed by 13 percent."

However, according to Ms Yasina, children-orphans are exempted from taxation. She has added that in the global practice, unlike Russia, charity is not taxed, which does not promote the spread of charity in Russia. "Exceptions are impossible, we need to change the law," she said.

In his turn, Pyotr Ischenko, President of the Union of Charitable Organizations, said in his interview to the "Echo Moskvy" Radio that the actions of the tax inspection, which demands payment of taxes from parents of Beslan children, are illegitimate.

Igor Yurgens, a member of the Commission of the Public Chamber for Charity Development, is indignant with the fact of the tax claims and is going to draw public attention to this problem.

The "NEWSru.com" notes that tax privileges for philanthropists and recipients of charitable help existed in Russia before 2002, however, they were cancelled after a series of resonant criminal cases: in them, charitable organizations figured, founded by businessmen to evade from taxes.