Almost 300,000 self-employed Russians have quit business in Russia in the past three months due to social tax hikes, an Economics Ministry official said on Monday. From January 1, 2013, the Russian government doubled the annual fixed-sum social security tax for individual entrepreneurs to RUB 36,000 ($1,200), in a move that directly affected babysitters, housemaids, tutors, handymen and other self-employed Russian workers earning RUB 50,000-100,000 a year. The new tariffs reduced the number of individual entrepreneurs by 293,421 people between December 2012 and February 2013, Russian RIA Novosti reported citing Natalia Larionova, director of the ministry’s department for small-medium enterprise business and competition. That represents 7% of the total number of individual entrepreneurs registered in Russia, she said.