Overview of tax events for April 2020

Regulatory Developments

The Russian President has signed the law on protecting and encouraging investments for which investors have been waiting for two years.

The Russian President has signed the law amending part two of the Russian Tax Code. Entities that spend funds on purchasing personal protective equipment for employees will obtain preferences in the form of a reduced profit tax base.

The members of the Russian State Duma will submit to the Russian Government a new version of the food sharing law before July. The maximum volume of food products will be determined that producers and retailers will be able to provide for charitable purposes without taxation, and this will be 15-30% of the overall turnover.

The discussion on the reform of the disposal charge has been postponed until Q IV 2020.

Practice

Individuals can now submit a notice of their membership of foreign entities online.

The Russian Federal Tax Service:

• has extended the scope of the functions of the Transparent Business service;
• has launched a service by using which taxpayers may find out whether they should comply with the Rules for granting a deferral (an instalment plan) with respect to the payment of taxes;
• has developed recommendations on how to apply anti-crisis support measures for the owners of taxable property;
• has explained how desk tax audits will be held during non-working days;
• has prepared a summary table concerning the new timeframes for submitting tax returns and paying taxes (contributions).
• has explained the procedure for granting deferrals with regard to taxes and contributions;
• has postponed the recovery of arrears until 1 June.

From 1 April, Russian banks will be obliged to report to the tax authorities whether their clients have funds and about the movement of such funds on the accounts with which electronic wallets are associated.

Russia has sent to the government of Cyprus a letter concerning amendments to the double taxation treaty. Subsequently, similar letters have been sent to Malta and Luxembourg.

Taxes - COVID-19: For information about the legal consequences of the spread of the coronavirus and practical recommendations on how to organise business processes in the new conditions, please refer to Pepeliaev Group’s lawyers on the firm's website.