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.

Last Tuesday June 19, 2018, Anton Kabakov, Partner at Forte Tax & Law, took part in a meeting of the working group on improving investment climate held to discuss how the business environment in St. Petersburg could be improved. This working group is putting forward proposals and initiatives related to investment policy in St. Petersburg and also considers matters of law, regional issues and analytical materials on behalf of business representatives.

Forte Tax & Law has been closely teaming up with St. Petersburg State University to provide practical training to students and assess the quality of education and professional training offered to graduates. Anton Kabakov, Partner at Forte Tax & Law, was recently involved as a member of the State Examination Board in the assessment of the defense of master theses by graduates specializing in tax law at the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg State University.

The dispute is about supply transactions concluded between Uralkali and a related Swiss trader who resold the goods delivered by Uralkali to independent customers.

The Supreme Court has rendered an important ruling in a dispute over the thin capitalization rule involving OAO SUEK-Kuzbass (further the “Company”). In this case, the Supreme Court allowed considering the loan principal as investment in capital in order to apply the preferential tax rates for dividends provided under double taxation treaties (further “Tax Treaties”) when paying interest re-qualified as dividends under the thin capitalization rule. The conclusions drawn by the Supreme Court will undoubtedly be of interest to all companies that have or are planning to get intragroup loans.

Several laws putting in place a “second capital amnesty” in Russia came into force on February 19, 2018 [1]. As previously, the main purpose is the deoffshorization of the economy and return of capital to Russia. Businessmen who did not declare their assets and accounts during the first capital amnesty in 2015 – 2016 are expected to do so now and to return their assets to Russia on completely lawful grounds without incurring any risk of being brought to tax, administrative and criminal liability

Anton Kabakov, Partner at Forte Tax & Law and co-chairman of SPIBA Financial Committee shared some transfer pricing news.

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.”

To read the full article, please click on this link

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.