President Putin Wants to Tax Wealthy Russians A Little More

Wealthy Russians have to pay a little more tax. Russian President Putin wants them to pay 15 percent of their income above 5 million rubles.

Now that income tax is 13 percent.

The increase is expected to take effect on January 1 and would bring the state 60 billion rubles annually, Putin said during a speech on television.

The announcement comes a week before a referendum on a significant change to the constitution.

Putin hopes that the people will support the proposal so that he can remain in power until 2036.