Overview of tax events for April 2022

Regulatory developments

The Russian President has signed the following laws:

• No. 96-FZ, specifically, clarifying the procedure of how a profit tax benefit should be applied by participants in regional investment projects (in Russian, abbreviated to RIPs) ( executive summary); 
• No. 97-FZ granting an exemption from VAT with regard to transactions to dispose of exclusive rights under a franchise agreement ( executive summary).

Further, a protocol has been ratified regarding the deferral for VAT with regard to imports of goods from the EAEU.

The State Duma:

• has passed a law granting an exemption from VAT with regard to transactions under which financial collateral is provided in monetary funds and in securities, including on interest on same. The procedure is being also modified for assessing profit tax on such transactions. The law also contains amendments regarding the taxation for participants in RIPs.

The Russian Finance Ministry:

• has developed amendments to the federal standard relating to accounting for capital investments. Some specific features have also been stipulated of how the above standard should be applied by companies that may use simplified accounting procedures;
• believes data of international price reporting agency Argus to be representative with regard to the price of Urals Russian oil for the purposes of calculating mineral extraction tax;

The Russian Federal Tax Service:

• has renewed its website's section containing Letters. It is now titled “ Letters of the Russian Federal Tax Service which are binding on tax authorities”; and, hence, the requirement has also been changed in terms of the use of such letters in tax authorities’ operations. The list has been expanded of letters to be posted in this section;
• has approved the Plan for the development and introduction of the formats of electronic documents in 2022.

Practice

The industries have been named with the biggest tax burden, to include the following: education, mining, culture, sports and entertainment. The largest tax burden is traditionally recorded in major resource-producing regions.

The Russian Constitutional Court has held it to be lawful for documents to be seized from a taxpayer’s contracting party during a tax audit. The person from which documents are seized should enjoy the same legal guarantees as the taxpayer with respect to which the audit is conducted (Ruing No. 500-O).

The Judicial Department under the Russian Supreme Court has published statistics on courts’ performance in 2021.