Amendments to Federal Law N 115-FZ dated July 25, 2002 On the Legal Status of Foreign Nationals in the Russian Federation will enter into force on January 16, 2019.

Draft amendments to Federal Law On Foreign Investments in Business Entities of Strategic Importance for National Defense and State Security were published on September 10, 2018 on the website used for official publication of draft regulations. The proposed amendments will affect those Russian nationals who control strategic enterprises and plan to apply for or are in process of obtaining another/second citizenship.

Forte Tax & Law  would like to remind Russian companies that are part of international holdings that the deadline for submitting notices of participation in multinational groups of companies is coming up soon.

The Federation Council completed its spring session on July 28, 2018 as expected by approving a number of important and widely debated tax bills. We have briefly reviewed below the changes approved by the Federation Council that are, in our opinion, the most important.

We reported earlier on that major changes were due to be made soon to the procedure for migration registration. The new changes essentially provide that it will be possible to register foreign nationals working on Russia only with the address at which they live (rather than the address of their employer’s office as previously).

In the third reading, the State Duma adopted amendments to Federal Law On Migration Registration of Foreign Nationals and Stateless Persons in the Russian Federation. These changes will affect all foreign nationals temporarily staying in Russia, including those employed and working under employment contracts as well as highly qualified specialists.

From May 25, 2018 to July 25, 2018 a special procedure for registering foreign nationals will apply in cities hosting FIFA World Cup matches, i.e. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Nizhniy Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Saransk and Sochi.

From April 20, 2018 onwards, employers will be required to use new forms when sending to the Department of Migration Matters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, among others, the following notices regarding foreign employees

A new base for accrual of property tax will be determined by the end of 2018 in St. Petersburg

Companies often do not pay enough attention to issues related to the holding and documenting of annual general meetings. This, in turn, gives rise to unnecessary risks and errors associated with internal control, relations with business partners and compliance with Russian law