Overview of Tax events for August 2019

Regulatory Developments

• The Russian Ministry of Finance is proposing to change the use of tax benefits in cross-border transactions in the draft of ‘Principle lines of budget, tax, and customs and tariffs policy for 2020 - 2022’. A reduced tax rate will apply only if monetary funds reach a Russian resident within 180 days after they were credited to an intermediate company’s account.

• The Russian Ministry of Justice has registered Order No. ММV-7-3/279@ of the Russian Federal Tax Service dated 5 June 2019 that establishes a unified form, using which international companies will be able to submit information about their controlling parties from 1 January 2020.

• From 12 August the form has changed for a notification of membership in foreign companies (of the establishment of unincorporated foreign structures). The Russian Ministry of Justice has registered Order No. ММV-7-13/338@ of the Russian Federal Tax Service dated 5 July 2019.

Case law

• The Russian Federal Tax Service has issued letter No. ED-4-13/15696@ “On holding companies’ beneficial ownership of income from sources in the Russian Federation” dated 8 August 2019.

• Currently Russia mainly acts as a recipient in the process of automated information exchange. For the 2017 reporting period, the Federal Tax Service received information from 60 off-shore zones and low-tax jurisdictions. Tax Service uses the information received to identify non-declared income from foreign sources and foreign accounts and investment agreements of controlling parties and their CFCs (controlled foreign companies).

• Pepeliaev Group’s Managing Partner Sergey Pepeliaev discusses the logic of the additional assessment of dozens of billion roubles of excise duties for tobacco companies.