The Governor of St. Petersburg chaired on Friday September 28, 2018 a meeting of the Group for Improvement of Business Environment, also attended by Anton Kabakov, Partner at Forte Tax & Law.

Forte Tax & Law held a seminar on September 27, 2018 on The Latest Tax Legislation Changes: A New Business Season Ahead.

We are delighted to congratulate our partner, Anton Kabakov, on becoming a member of the Leaders Club for Promotion of Business Initiatives which pulls together successful entrepreneurs from more than 40 regions of Russia.

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