On October 03, 2018, the President of Russia signed a law amending the Criminal Code by adding a new article (Article 1441) on liability for unfair dismissal and refusal to hire people on grounds of their pre-pension age.

Delovoy Peterburg has published an article on Legal Forecasts or How the Market of Legal Services is Entering a Golden Age. Legal consultants discussed with Delovoy Peterburg journalists the changes expected in the legal market in 2018 as well as trends already noticeable on this market.

Anton Kabakov, Partner at Forte Tax & Law, spoke about tax practice and outlined the characteristics typical to tax law in 2018. “Tax law is the most dynamic area of law. Hundreds of amendments are introduced to tax laws every year. The main trend in 2018 is the “fight against the shadow economy” or the improvement of tax collection thanks to the fight against the shadow sector and the whitewash of the economy” comments Anton.

Anna Yakovleva, Senior Associate at Forte Tax&Law, commented on the prospects of labor law developments. Anna noted that “as if to bestow a “New Year’s gift”, the Ministry of Labor has scheduled most of its inspections in the first quarter of 2018. These labor inspections will be conducted as per a new format involving checklists, while the old practice of “one fine per single violation” will remain in place. Courts will, as a result, be flooded with cases challenging inspection results. We also expect tougher criminal sanctions on employers for delay in wage payments as well as in migration disputes arising from the 2018 World Cup.”

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On behalf of the entire Forte Tax & Law team, I would like to wish you a happy New Year and a great start to the new business season! We hope that 2018 will be filled with success and achievements. To this end, we have put together a brief overview of the most important changes to be introduced to Russian laws so that you can be forewarned, and thereby forearmed, when they come into force in 2018.

The list of state inspections scheduled for 2018 has now been published. If your company happens to be in this list of labor inspections, you will be pleased to know that from July 01, 2018 onwards the State Labor Inspectorate will conduct scheduled inspections in a new way, i.e. by using checklists. Certain employers will be subject to this new procedure as early as January 01, 2018.

The Federal Labor and Employment Service of Russia (further “Rostrud”) repeatedly stated in 2006 – 2009 that employers are not permitted to set and pay salaries in foreign currency (Letters No.1688-6-1 dated 10.10.2006, No.1729-6-0 dated 28.07.2008, No.1145-ТЗ dated 11.03.2009 and No.1810-6-1 dated 24.06.2009).