The Russian State Duma has adopted a law in the third reading, allowing local authorities to introduce a tourist tax from 2025. In essence, it will replace the resort fee.
The maximum rate in 2025 will be 1% of the cost of accommodation services in hotels and other accommodation facilities. It will then increase by 1 percentage point annually until 2029. From 2029 onwards, it should not exceed 5%.
The minimum amount is set at 100 rubles per day.
The tax will be paid to the budget at the location of the hotels, but it will not be collected from the individual, as was the case with the resort fee, which has been in effect in a number of Russian regions since 2018. Instead, it will be collected from the hotel for each occupied room.
Certain categories of citizens are exempt from the tax, including participants in the war in Ukraine.
Current Resort Fee
The current legislation allows for the implementation of an experiment on the payment of the resort fee only in the Republic of Crimea, the Altai, Krasnodar and Stavropol Krais, St. Petersburg and “Sirius” until the end of 2024. In the Krasnodar Krai, the amount of the fee is 30 rubles per day (50 rubles in Sochi), in the Altai Krai and “Sirius” – 50 rubles, in the Stavropol Krai and St. Petersburg – 100 rubles. In Crimea, the fee was canceled on March 11, 2022.
