Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government to consider easing business conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises that manufacture goods. The order is included in a list of instructions issued after the 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
The document was published on the Kremlin website and is dated July 11, 2026, although Russian media only drew attention to it later. The government must report on its consideration of the issue by October 1, 2026.
The same list also orders the drafting of legislative amendments that would preserve the simplified tax system for businesses with income up to 20 million rubles. It also calls for a national strategy on the development of digital platforms and the introduction of platform-based solutions across sectors of the economy and other areas through 2036.
In November 2025, Putin signed a law raising VAT from 20% to 22% and lowering the income threshold for the simplified tax regime from 60 million to 20 million rubles. The plan had been to reduce that threshold further to 15 million rubles in 2027 and to 10 million in 2028.
However, in June 2026 at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the president said that the further reduction of the income threshold for the simplified tax regime would be postponed.
Russian entrepreneurs had earlier said, while commenting on the tax-law changes, that under such conditions some companies would be forced either to use “gray schemes” or to shut down their businesses.