Projects
Our Real Estate Practice’s lawyers have developed and assisted with a transaction of a major Russian diamond-mining company to purchase office premises in Moscow. The total floor area of the buildings was 11,500 sq.m. while the transaction value amounted to USD 90 million.
Pepeliaev Group’s lawyers represented a client to which a tax authority had assessed additional profit tax on several grounds based on the results of a field tax audit. In doing so, the tax authority did not recognise a court decision which had been previously handed down in favour of the company, insisting that it had a right to specify additional grounds and ignore the previous court decision. Our lawyers managed to defend the client’s position on this point. The court stated that the tax authority should in any case comply with the previous decision of the court. And therefore the court has defended one of the fundamental principles of law that all state authorities should comply with court decisions. The total amount in dispute exceeded RUB 90 million.
Our lawyers successfully provided support during two field tax audits of a famous producer of confectionery. The objections drawn up by our lawyers and a discussion of them with the tax authority allowed litigation to be avoided. In the first case we managed to convince the tax authority that there was no justification for its conclusions that there was a reduced price for products sold for export. In the second case the objections were accepted with regard to conclusions that the taxpayer had overstated the expenses on payment for intra-group services from foreign companies of the group.
Pepeliaev Group’s lawyers conducted legal due diligence of the company's tax and accounting reporting documents and identified potential tax risks, offering recommendations for mitigating them. This allowed significant claims from the tax authorities to be avoided when a field tax audit was conducted.
Our lawyers provided legal assistance to a leading global car manufacturer in the context of building a car assembly plant in St Petersburg. The project involved negotiations with the representatives of regional state authorities on issues related to obtaining the status of a strategic investor, and providing support to the client in negotiations with the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the Federal Customs Service, and other bodies. In addition, our lawyers provided support to the client when entering into an investment agreement, selecting a land plot, and provided advice on employment matters when putting the completed plant into operation.
Pepeliaev Group’s lawyers provided advice to the client on issues associated with changing the methods of tax accounting for income and expenses based on the current double taxation treaty with the USA. To successfully complete this project, our lawyers actively consulted the Russian Ministry of Finance. This resulted in amendments being made to the treaty based on our research and formulations. In addition we developed the optimal legal form for the current structure.