Serfdom in Russia Polish provinces. In 1857, 6.79% of serfs were domestic, landless servants who stayed landless after 1861. Only Polish and Romanian domestic serfs got land. 90% of the serfs who got larger plots were in Congress Poland where the Tsar wanted to weaken the . The rest were in the barren north and in Astrakhan. In the whole Empire, peasant land declined 4.1%, 13.3% outside the ex Polish zone and 23.3% in the 16 black earth provinces. These redemption payments were not abolished till January 1, 1907. A 2018 study in the "American Economic Review" found "substantial increases in agricultural productivity,
Taxation in Russia businesses, imputed tax on retail operations, and redesigned the taxation of private and corporate motor vehicles. On January 1, 2004 the VAT rate decreased from 20 percent to 18 percent. In 2007–2008 Putin, both as president and later as prime minister, promoted a decrease in the VAT rate to 12 percent by 2010; Putin's allies Sergey Chemezov and Minister of Economics Elvira Nabiullina support this proposal. Minister of Finance Alexey Kudrin opposed the change due to the need to finance the Pension Fund and the rearmament of Russian troops. On January 1, 2005 Russia abolished the tax on advertising—the last