New rules for state duties to be paid in bankruptcy

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Pepeliaev Group advises of drastic changes in the rules for paying state duties for initiating bankruptcy cases and standalone disputes in them.

The amendments are connected with the State Duma having adopted in the third reading on 23 July 2024 draft law No. 577665-8 to amend the Russian Tax Code (the "Tax Code") and other regulatory legal instruments concerning taxes and levies. The amendments are targeted at introducing new grounds for paying state duties and increasing their amounts, including in bankruptcy cases. Bearing in mind the transitional provisions of the law, it is expected that it will come into force in the near future.

Below are the key amendments concerning bankruptcy cases.

When the changes come into effect

The amendments are coming into force in a month after the law is officially publishedOn 23 July the adopted Law was sent for approval to the Federation Council and will then be submitted to the Russian President to be signed
.

The new grounds and amount of the state duty are to be applied to petitions and complaints that are sent to the court of the relevant instance once the new developments have come into force.

State duty for initiating bankruptcy

The state duty for applying with a petition to have a debtor declared bankrupt is payable only by creditors and will be: RUB 10,000 for creditors that are individuals and RUB 100,000 for creditors that are companies.

Debtors are exempted from the payment of state duty.

State duty for initiating individual disputes in bankruptcy cases

Under any individual disputes in bankruptcy cases the amount of state duty is 50% of the amount established in article 333.21(1) of the Tax Code proceeding from whether or not the claims are of a property nature.

See below information regarding categories of disputes and the relevant amounts of state duties.

Type of separate dispute	Amount of state duty	Article 333.21(1) of the Tax Code
Property disputes
over secondary liability	50% of the state duty on the value of the lawsuit: between 100,000 and 10,000;  between 100,001 and 1,000,000 - 10,000 + 5% of the amount above RUB 100,000; between 1,000,001 and 10,000,000 - 55,000 + 3% of the amount above 1,000,000; between 10,000,001 and 50,000,000 – 325 000 + 1% of the amount above 10,000,000; above RUB 50,000,000 - 725,000 + 0.5% of the amount above 50,000,000, but not more than 10,000,000.	subclause 1
on reimbursing losses
on claiming or imposing the obligation to transfer property
on entering claims in the register of creditors' claims
with respect to objections (differences) regarding claims (apart from those confirmed by a court judgment)
on applying the consequences of the invalidity of transactions	50% of state duty on the value of property to be returned	subclause 8
on the invalidity of transactions (without applying the consequences of invalidity)	for individuals - 7,000 for companies - 25,000	subclause 2
on challenging bidding processes
on      challenging resolutions of a creditors' meeting (committee)
Non-Property disputes
about resolving disagreements	for individuals – RUB 7,000 for companies - RUB 25,000	subclause 4
on having actions (omissions) of a court-appointed administrator recognised as unlawful (with respect to each episode)
on a court-appointed administrator being relieved of his/her duties
on statements of an intention to settle claims
Procedural applications in property related and non-property related disputes
On persons joining the case as third parties that do not submit their own claims with respect to the subject matter of the dispute.	with respect to property-related disputes: 50% of the state duty on the amount calculated on the basis of the price of lawsuit under article 333.21(1) of the Tax Code	subclause 11
	under property related disputes if the lawsuit is not to be assessed and also under non-property related disputes: for individuals - 7,000, for organisations - 25,000
On legal succession apart from cases of universal succession	for individuals – 2,500 for companies – 12,500	subclause 12
On issuing a copy of an enforcement document and other claims connected with enforcement documents	5,000	subclause 15
On a court judgment being revised in view of new or newly discovered circumstances	15,000	subclause 16
On enforcing a lawsuit, replacing a provisional remedy or cancelling a remedy	15,000	subclause 17
When an appeal is filed	for individuals– 5,000 for companies – 15,000	subclause 19
When a cassation appeal is filed	for individuals– 10,000 for companies – 25,000	subclause 20
When a cassation or supervisory appeal is filed with the Supreme Court, when an appeal is filed against a ruling of a judge of the Supreme Court on a refusal to refer the appeal for review	for individuals – 15,000 for companies – 40,000	subclause 21

 

Benefits when the state duty is paid

In addition to the rules already in effect in bankruptcy cases, the following are relieved from the payment of the state duty:

• when creditors file applications to have claims included in the register of creditors’ claims when such claims are confirmed by court judgments that have come into force;

• individuals in a case concerning their bankruptcy (if any bankruptcy procedure has been introduced with respect to them) in standalone disputes connected with the exemption from obligations to creditors, and with the formation of the bankruptcy estate and of the register of creditors’ claims.

What to think about and what to do

We recommend keeping up with how the relevant amendments are coming into force and, if necessary, initiate a bankruptcy of debtors and state the relevant claims, taking account of the current and new amounts of state duties.

To avoid non-refundable court expenses, the prospects of the dispute need to be assessed with greater care. It is important to bear in mind that, with respect to applications to the Supreme Court, a failure to comply with the rules for the payment of state duty does not result in such applications being set aside without moving forward. Consequently, there may be a risk that the complaint will be returned because the deadline for filing it has been missed.

To avoid mistakes, we recommend using calculators of state duties that are published on the websites of commercial courts and taking into account the number of points in the dispute.

You should pay special attention to the order in which the new developments come into force and how they are applied in the procedures that have already been introduced.

Help from your adviser

The bankruptcy and anti-crisis defence of business practice has extensive experience in providing integrated support during bankruptcy cases, acting on the side of the creditors, owners and management of a debtor company. They also provide assistance in individual standalone disputes.

We are ready to assist you with assessing the prospects of a dispute in court, along with the financial and other implications of participating in the dispute. We also help to obtain the reimbursement of court costs.


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