Overview of tax events for October 2017

REGULATORY DEVELOPMENTS

The Russian Government has added smartwatches to the list of items falling under 1% levy paid by electronic goods importers.

www.kommersant.ru, 03 October 2017

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The Russian Federal Tax Service has updated the annual list of states and territories which do not ensure that information is exchanged with Russia for tax purposes. The British Virgin Islands and South Korea were removed from the list.

www.rbc.ru, 03 October 2017

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The State Duma:

• has ratified the Agreement on the Eurasian Economic Union's Customs Code. The Code will come into effect on 1 January 2018;

ria.ru, 26 October 2017

• has approved the Law ‘On amending article 420 of part two of the Russian Tax Code’, which removes payments made under agreements made with subsidiaries of FIFA, along with the Organising Committee Russia-2018 and its subsidiaries, from payments that are exempt from insurance contributions;

www.duma.gov.ru, 18 October 2017

• has passed in the first reading the law on the federal budget for 2018-2020. Among the provisions of the law is a new profit tax concession for investment activities.

ria.ru, 27 October 2017

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The Russian President:

• has instructed the Russian Ministry of Finance to consider extending for another year the movable property tax concessions allowing companies to purchase equipment.

iz.ru, 09 October 2017

• instructed the Russian Government to submit to the State Duma before 15 December a draft law on determining uniform rules for establishing, calculating, and collecting public payments.

rg.ru, 10 October 2017

• has instructed the Central Bank of Russia and the Russian Government by 1 July 2018 to develop their suggestions on digital currency regulation.

www.rbc.ru, 24 October 2017

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The Russian Government:

• has approved the draft law on adjustments to the taxation of controlled foreign companies submitted by the Russian Ministry of Finance;

www.government.ru, 23. October 2017

• is ready to consider the reduction of tax on the profit received from dividends by Chinese partners of the Yamal LNG project in exchange for similar concessions for Russian companies doing business in China;

www.vedomosti.ru, 17 October 2017

• is not going to place any more of a burden on business.

www.vedomosti.ru, 16 October 2017

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The Russian Ministry for Economic Development supports the introduction of VAT for goods purchased from foreign online shops and imported via mail services.

www.kommersant.ru, 12 October 2017

PRACTICE

The advancement in tax control measures has allowed the period for a VAT refund to be reduced to two months. In the second quarter of 2017 within this period tax authorities managed to process 6,000 VAT returns (32% of the total amount).

www.nalog.ru, 12 October 2017

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The Bank of Russia and the Russian Federal Tax Service have agreed that tax authorities can grant the megaregulator access in order for the latter to review financial reports of banks' corporate clients.

www.kommersant.ru,19 October 2017

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The amount of commercial (‘arbitration’) disputes involving tax authorities is steadily going down. From 2014 to 2016 the number of lawsuits filed by tax authorities has dropped from above 70,000 to below 20,000. Companies are challenging the decisions of tax authorities more rarely. Disputes concerning large amounts of money are mostly won by tax authorities.

pravo.ru, 19 October 2017

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The Russian Supreme Court:

• supported the right of the Russian Federal Tax Service to reverse the decision of a lower tax authority even a year after it was issued (Akvamarin v the Federal Tax Service, case No. А40-101850/2016);

zakon.ru, 25 October 2017

• supported the tax authority in a dispute with Sberbank over whether court bailiffs have the right to access information about all of a client's accounts.

www.rbc.ru,11 October 2017

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The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeal has dismissed the claim of Uralkali seeking the reversal of a decision to additionally assess around RUB 980 million in the framework of tax supervision over transfer pricing activities. The case involves the cross-border sale of mineral fertilizers through an affiliated Swiss trader.

rapsinews.ru, 12 October 2017