To get the team

What he specialises in

Andrey provides legal support in taxation projects related to entering into and implementing production sharing agreements, contracts between companies, mergers and acquisitions of companies with multinational corporations being involved, and in major investment projects.

His main achievements

Andrey has significant experience in providing advice and representing major Russian and foreign companies before courts with regard to the calculation and payment of taxes. The advice he provides is on a wide range of issues, not least those arising in the calculation and payment of profit tax, VAT and mineral extraction tax.

He has authored published items on ESR (‘economic substance’) legislation in the UAE and other low-taxation jurisdictions, in particular:

• Economic Substance: Key takeaway from the Art. 7 of the Cabinet Decision No. 55 (2023);

• The role of economic substance in the UAE's taxation system;

• The adequate economic substance test for the UAE, Nalogoved, June 2023;

• The significance of economic substance in UAE taxation system, Nalogoved, May 2023.

Andrey's major projects include, among others:

• prepared an appeal to the Russia's Constitutional Court to have recognised as inconsistent with with Russian Constitution the requirement of the Russian Tax Code that a taxpayer should include in its tax base for VAT not only the cost of goods (works or services) sold, but also the amount of an insurance payout the taxpayer has received because the buyer has breached its obligation to pay for the goods (works or services);
• represented a major Russian bank before a court in the case concerning the taxation of bank loyalty programs; 
• represented Gazprom OJSC and its subsidiaries in cases that involved challenging the results of field tax audits.

What they say

His fellow practitioners note his growing reputation and describe him as a “skilled, sophisticated and developed” specialist (Chambers Europe).

Clients describe Andrey Nikonov as a “lawyer of consummate professionalism” (Chambers Europe).