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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An appellate court has ruled on a second court case of transfer pricing[1]. The conclusions of this high-profile case will affect all taxpayers who have entered into cross-border transactions with related parties. This case confirms that it is necessary to thoroughly justify why a transfer pricing method has been selected over another and clearly specify the reasons for rejecting the other methods. This case also shows that approaches traditionally used to justify the selection of a certain transfer pricing method may miss the mark. 

The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has been playing an important and very active role in state regulation for a while. Many law firms have set up a separate practice offering special services for liaising with this particular state authority, and others have filled this niche by specializing in resolving issues with the FAS. Anton Kabakov, Partner at Forte Tax &Law, agrees that the FAS has become more active and also talked with Delovoy Peterburg about the demand for antimonopoly compliance from European businesses.

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It will be difficult from 2018 onwards to transfer any property rights to a daughter (subsidiary) company without paying profit tax. It will also become more difficult to increase the net assets of subsidiaries

The deadline for reporting controlled transactions has expired recently, and all the companies that had to report such transactions can now breathe a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, some companies which filed no reports on controlled transactions for 2013 have already received requests from tax authorities enquiring as to why no reports have been filed.