Optimised international payments in the conditions of sanctions and currency restrictions

Lawyers of our practice have provided advice to a strategic consulting company. The project included optimising international payments in the conditions of sanctions and the introduction of counter-sanctions currency restrictions. Foreign banks have started to refuse to transfer to Russia payments of the client’s contracting parties for services. The client prepared several options for optimising payments based on the permission of offsets in foreign trade activities by the President's Decree No. 529 dated 8 August 2022. Our experts have analysed these options from the standpoint of currency regulation and tax risks. The project was implemented in two stages: concerning risks of offsetting royalties and dividends; and concerning offsetting other payments of a civil law nature. As a part of this project, a draft request has been prepared to the Russian Ministry of Economic Development.

The client has received recommendations which have helped to prevent mistakes arising from interpretations of legal rules that are not clearly obvious for a non-expert and to avoid large fines for violations of currency legislation.