Overview of Tax events for September 2019
Regulatory developments
The programme of the integration of Russia and Belarus implies the partial consolidation of the economic systems of both countries starting from January 2021, including transition to a unified Tax Code, setting up a “single regulator” of the energy market and unification of customs policy. The Presidents of both countries may approve the programme by 8 December.
The Russian Ministry of Finance has postponed the inclusion of three non-tax payments in the Tax Code. These are a road toll (known as “Platon”) for heavy goods vehicles, a fee for an adverse impact on the environment and the environmental levy.
Additionally:
The Russian Accounts Chamber is against the inclusion of non-tax payments in the Tax Code. First, the criteria of mandatory non-tax payments must be determined, to be followed by inventory-taking and the optimisation of such payments. A register of mandatory charges must be set up.
The Ministry of Trade has proposed to the Russian Government that the latter increase the car recycling fee starting from 1 January 2020.
Practice
Moscow, Novosibirsk Region, St Petersburg, Komi and Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District have been declared regions with the most efficient tax policy. Those at the bottom of the table include Irkutsk, Tver and Smolensk Regions, Chukotka and Krasnodar Territory.
According to the Federal Tax Service, the overall tax arrears in the country dropped to 7% against the volume of tax receipts. This is the smallest level for the last five years.
The Federal Tax Service has compared the tax burden of a standard enterprise for different taxation regimes.
This autumn the Federal Tax Service will receive information regarding Russian nationals’ assets in Switzerland. Earlier, Switzerland was postponing financial information exchange with Russia because of the risk of a data breach.
The business ombudsman, Boris Titov, and business associations such as the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Association of European Businesses, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the not-for-profit organisation Opora Russia and Business Russia are lobbying the Russian Supreme Court not to consider a tax offence to be a continuing offence, in other words, an offence which terminates only when the debtor pays tax arrears.
Russia is proposing that a mechanism for returning assets that were illegally obtained should be set up within the framework of the UN. The principal conditions for ensuring the efficiency of the mechanism can include: (a) practical cooperation of law enforcement authorities of different countries, (b) information exchange regarding illegal assets in the countries of origin and countries of destination, and (c) the development of principles for the disposal of the assets that are under distraint, that have been seized and that have been returned.