Tax in kind

Tax in kind (prodpodatok). A system of agricultural taxation adopted at the 10th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in March 1921 in place of the surplus appropriation system. Although taxes were collected in produce, as under the previous system, the rates were much lower than before, and more food was left for domestic consumption and private sale. The tax in kind was a major step in re-establishing a market economy in the USSR (see New Economic Policy). It was necessitated to some extent by the weakness of the monetary system at the time. It led to a great improvement in the rural economy. The tax in kind was replaced in 1924 by a monetary agricultural tax, which remained in force until the collectivization of agriculture began in 1929.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]