Putin signs law on visitor's tax for the Crimea
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that would impose a fee for the use of resort infrastructure in three regions of Russia and the annexed Crimea.
The corresponding document is published on the Russian Federation's portal for legal information.
It says that an "experiment on the development of resort infrastructure" will be carried out in these regions through December 31, 2022.
Payers of the fee will be physical persons who have reached the age of majority and who are living in accommodations for over 24 hours.
The collection of the visitor's tax will begin no earlier than May 1, 2018. The rate is not allowed to exceed 100 rubles ($1.66 USD); in 2018, it cannot exceed 50 rubles ($0.83 USD).
The amount of the visitor's tax payable will be determined by the number of days the payer of the visitor's tax actually resides in the accommodations, with the exception of the day of arrival, and the appropriately-valued visitor's tax.
The fee will not be included in accommodation price.
The Crimean authorities are predicting a decline in the tourist flow per million people.