Analytics and brochures

On 3 October 2017 the Russian Ministry of Finance published the draft “Main directions of the budgetary, tax and customs tariff policies for 2018 and for the planning period of 2019 and 2020”. The document states that it is necessary for Russia to reduce its dependency on the export of oil. Over the next several years this will have to be accomplished in difficult economic and international conditions. New investments in the country's economy will need to be attracted. 

Bilateral trade and investment flows between Hong Kong and Russia are expected to expand over the next couple of years as Russia shifts its economic focus to Asia, and the conclusion of the comprehensive double taxation agreement (CDTA) between the two parties.

The Russian government has proposed an increase in the maximum value of the tax base for social insurance and pension payments by 8 percent beginning Jan. 1. All companies in Russia, including foreign and multinational enterprises, are liable for compulsory insurance contributions for their employees to fund social welfare programs. The payments include social insurance in case of employee's temporary incapacity to work or maternity leave, medical insurance to fund the free public health care system, and pension contributions for retirement.

The advertising of medicines in the Russian Federation is regulated primarily by the general and special provisions of Federal Law No. 38-FZ dated March 13, 2006 ‘On Advertising’ (the “Law onAdvertising”). Also, the Association of International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (“AIPM”) sets out some rules on advertising and methods of promotion to the general public. These requirements are prescribed by the AIPM Code of Practice, which is a self-regulatory code, and applicable only to the pharmaceutical companies that are members of AIPM. In particular, the AIPM Code establishes both general provisions on the promotion of medicines and specific features for advertising and other methods of promotion to the general public.

For more than a year, when considering customs disputes, courts have been actively applying the legal positions that are reflected in Resolution No. 18 of the Plenum of the Russian Supreme Court “On certain issues of the application of customs legislation by courts” dated 12 May 2016. Most such disputes are connected with methods for determining the customs value of goods imported into the territory of the Customs Union. This is the reason why special attention is given to this category of disputes in Resolution No. 18 of the Plenum of the Russian Supreme Court, says Andrey Mikulin, Head of Sakhalin Office of Pepeliaev Group . 

Economists are very robust in pushing their ideas forward into legislation, and lawyers often pay no attention to the legal inconsistency of such innovations. In the policy guidelines for the public finances, taxes, and customs and tariffs issued by the Russian Ministry of Finance for the period up to 2020, the task is set to enact tax and non-tax expenditures legislation as early as this year. An author of the article is Sergey Pepeliaev, Managing partner at Pepeliaev Group.