Overview of tax events for July 2023

Regulatory developments

The Russian President has signed a Federal Law introducing large-scale amendments to the Tax Code.

The Federation Council:

• has ratified a protocol regarding amendments to the EAEU Treaty concerning the procedure of how indirect taxes should be levied when electronic services are provided;
• has approved a law regarding the tax on excess profit of major companies.

Starting from 1 August 2023, the Russian Government will adjust the rates of the recycling charge on passenger cars, and light commercial vehicles (LCV) and trucks.

The Governor of St Petersburg has signed a law to introduce a resort fee in the territory of the city starting from 1 April 2024.

For information:

The Finance Ministry will assess whether it is expedient to grant to regions the right to introduce a resort fee.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade supports the initiative of VAT being cancelled on food-sharing for retailers.

Practice

The double taxation treaty between Russia and Denmarkwill no longer be operative starting from 1 January 2024. 

According to the Belarusian minister for taxes and levies, information within the integrated system of administering indirect taxes is exchanged weekly.

Regarding the unified tax account: “We may acknowledge that the reform has gone through: we have separated budget relationships from taxpayers”, stated Daniil Egorov, head of the Federal Tax Service. The next goal is to ensure that revenues to the regional budgets and federal non-budgetary funds are transparent, stable and predictable.

The digital ruble will not yet be used to pay taxes, said Roman Artyukhin, head of the Federal Treasury. 

The collected amount of taxes for the first half-year in Russia totalled RUB 21.6 trillion. There has been growth in all categories of taxes, except for mineral extraction tax.

The Finance Ministry has conducted a preliminary analysis of whether a benefit that implies zeroing out VAT for public catering is efficient and has identified the whitewashing of the sector.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has urged producers of beer and soft drinks to prepare in advance for the labelling process which will start this year already.

The Constitutional Court has held to be inconsistent with the Constitution the practice when tax authorities in all cases assess the 2-year period for auditing controlled transactions based on adjusted notices after they received a repeat notice (see also Pepeliaev Group's alert).

Translated by the Translation Department of Pepeliaev Group