Forte Tax & Law and the Finance Committee of St. Petersburg International Business Association (SPIBA) have launched a series of debating club events #SPIBATaxTalks.

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.

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.

An event organized by Kelly Services for top managers to discuss leadership was held last Tuesday. Our esteemed partner, Anton Kabakov, was invited to moderate this discussion which ended up being particularly up-beat thanks to all the relevant issues that were discussed.

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

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.