The costs of maintaining pickup points may significantly increase, and a portion of these additional costs could ultimately be passed on to marketplace customers. The reason is amendments to the Tax Code submitted to the State Duma, which change the approach to taxing real estate used for pickup points.
Currently, the tax on such premises is not always calculated based on cadastral value. The amendments are intended to eliminate this uncertainty and include pickup points when applying the relevant regime. Market participants fear that for some properties, the tax burden could increase by 5–10 times as a result.
The owners of the pickup points themselves often do not have to pay property tax — most rent their premises. However, landlords may pass on increased costs through rent. Artyom Bobtsov, the owner of a pickup point network, calculated that for premises worth about 20 million rubles, additional costs could amount to about 400 thousand rubles per year. According to his estimate, rent in such a case could increase by approximately 20–25%.
For pickup points, this is a significant amount. According to industry representatives, rent accounts for about 20% of their expenses, and some pickup points in Moscow and the Moscow region are already operating near the break-even point. The additional burden could lead to the closure of the least profitable locations, especially during months with low demand.
Industry representatives also admit that the increase in costs will eventually affect the cost of marketplace services and prices for customers, but the specific amount of the possible price increase is not yet known. The joint company Wildberries and Russ has already opposed the proposed approach, calling it excessive and conceptually incorrect.
