Stefan Mileschin

But Putin wants 30 percent cut

A new bill submitted as draft legislation to Russia's lower house of parliament wants to see the commission taken by app store owners limited to just 20 percent.

While this move which would be good for Russian app developers, the bill requires that developers would be required to pay 30 percent of their app income to "a special IT training fund". Of course this will probably be administered by an oligarch who is a personal friend of Putin who will get even richer.

So rather than losing 30 percent to Apple, developers would be losing 50 percent in total -- 20 percent to Apple and 30 percent to this new training fund. If the bill passes there would be a large influx of cash into the training fund but could also result in developers opting not to offer their apps to the Russian market. It does seem that the Russians have seen Apple's money grab and thought "we should be having a cut of that too".

Alternatively, it could see app prices increase in Russia to compensate for the change. Apple also would not be incredibly happy, but there is little it could do if the bill passes into law.

https://fudzilla.com/news/51473-russ...o-drop-its-tax