The Kremlin … secured major changes to Russia’s double-tax treaty with Cyprus, where last year oligarchs and Russian corporations deposited $25 billion in the island’s banks, avoiding higher taxes in Russia […]
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(Oilprice.com – Irina Slav – June 11, 2018) A major tax overhaul in Russia’s oil industry is about to start pressuring the earnings of major oil companies. Refiners will be hit hardest as the overhaul will increase the tax burden on downstream operations while the upstream sector will see taxes shift from production-based to profit-based. Last week, the Finance and […]
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“… Siluanov says Russia has no plans to change its tax system in the next six years, but there will be ‘adjustments.’ … the government is once again considering measures to simplify the tax code, in order to encourage more businesspeople to stop working in the economy’s ‘gray sector’ …. Russian media has repeatedly said the government is discussing major […]
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MOSCOW. March 22 (Interfax) – The difference between the current individual income tax rate, 13%, and the rate now under discussion, 15%, is not dramatic, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said, emphasizing that the president would make a final decision on the rate. “The 13% income tax rate is not a fetish. I don’t think that the difference between 13% […]
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MOSCOW. July 22 (Interfax) – The materials concerning Hermitage Capital Management co-founder William Browder and his business partner Ivan Cherkasov were sent for approval to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, the defense lawyer Alexander Antipov said on Thursday. “The defense finished reviewing the case files, currently, the dossier has been sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office but I don’t think […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – April 19, 2017) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has promised not to raise taxes in 2017 and vowed to consider indexing retirement payments for working pensioners, delivering a moderately upbeat annual report on the troubled economy. Addressing the lower house of parliament on April 19, Medvedev said the Russian economy had avoided “catastrophe” despite low world […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Kupfer – February 22, 2017) #Russia has long prided itself on its simple 13 percent flat income #tax rate. But a series of reform proposals could push the country towards a progressive alternative. The Finance Ministry, the Economic Development Ministry and the Center for Strategic Research (CSR) are actively developing reforms for the Russian […]
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(Kremlin.ru – September 28, 2016) Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting on federal budget planning. Participants discussed the budget policy priorities for the upcoming period. President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, Government efforts to draft the federal budget are entering the final stage. By November 1, the draft is to be submitted to the 7th State Duma. I am confident that […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 12, 2016) Russia has signed an international agreement on the exchange of financial information, state news agency TASS reported Thursday. The head of Russia’s Federal Taxation Service (FNS) Mikhail Mishustin said that Russia will join the global system of data exchange between tax authorities in different countries in 2018. “This will allow us to […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Khrennikov and Stepan Kravchenko – February 8, 2016) When he’s not checking Gmail on his MacBook, Vladimir Putin’s new Internet czar can’t stop railing against American technology companies. Google, Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp., collectively worth more than Russia’s gross domestic product, have all entered German Klimenko’s crosshairs since he was named Putin’s first Internet […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Carol Matlack – January 28, 2016) For Russia’s battered economy, 2016 already looks miserable. The ruble has slumped to record lows as oil prices have fallen 11 percent since Jan. 1, to around $30 a barrel. The government, which gets nearly half its revenue from oil and gas, is scrambling to plug a 1.5 trillion-ruble ($19.2 […]
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(RFE/RL – Tom Balmforth – January 6, 2016) KHIMKI, Russia — After dark in the frigid parking lot of an Ikea outlet north of Moscow, in the trailer of a grubby white truck heated by a generator, a dozen men are sitting in winter coats and hats watching a Soviet blockbuster on a projector. The cramped space has been a […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 11, 2015) More than 70 percent of Moscow residents aware of the ongoing protest by truck drivers support their action, a poll released Wednesday by the independent Levada Center indicated. While the majority of Muscovites are familiar with the protest, 21 percent of the capital’s residents said they had heard nothing about it, while […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, December 8, 2015) The truck drivers’ strike and the seriousness with which the Kremlin has reacted to it show that “the Putin majority, the Putin consensus and Putin stability are all beginning to break down, Valery Solovey says; but that does not mean that more mass protests are likely to occur in […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 9 (Interfax) – The Russian government is not planning to raise taxes in the country in the next few years, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said. “Currently a decision has been made, it was supported by the president, that we in the next few years will not touch the tax system in general and we will not touch […]
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For over a month now, long-haul drivers in Russia have been engaged in a mass protest, staging rallies across the country, which have now reached Moscow. Truckers, especially those who are self-employed or work for small businesses, believe that the recently introduced additional toll for using federal highways will put their business on the brink of bankruptcy. (Russia Beyond the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Vasily Kolotilov – December 4, 2015) “I think I will set my car on fire soon. The tax will take us all down. I get 112 rubles a month in social payments for my kid – how am I supposed to raise him on that?” says Rasul, a truck driver from Russia’s North Caucasus republic […]
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(opendemocracy.net – EDITORS OF OPENDEMOCRACY RUSSIA) This Monday, the Russian press reports on the import ban on foreign medicines, Rosneft’s taxes, and an attack by Orthodox activists on a Moscow sculpture exhibition. Kommersant opens with an article on new plans to ban imports of a range of medical products. Several large NGOs, including Vera and Podari zhizn, involved in medical […]
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Russia is to introduce a new system for collecting tolls from heavy trucks, with the proceeds – some 50 billion rubles ($896 million) a year – to go toward vital road repairs. Payment will be controlled by special gates set up on major highways. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Anna Kuchma, RBTH – July 28, 2015) Help may […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – October 17, 2014) Russian authorities are moving ahead with a campaign to plug external and internal tax loopholes, with the government preparing a new law on ‘de-offshorisation’ and the central bank closing down banks complicit in grey capital outflows. The de-offshorisation campaign is intended to repatriate Russian business from offshore zones. The finance ministry […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 23, 2014) The State Duma on Friday passed legislation allowing Russian banks to pass information on their U.S. clients to the U.S. tax service, as demanded by FATCA, a law that drags banks around the world into the U.S. fight against tax evasion. But lawmakers were not keen to bend over backwards for the […]
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MOSCOW, March 26 (RIA Novosti) – Tensions between Moscow and Washington will not derail the two countries from signing an agreement on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act or FATCA, Russia’s Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov said Wednesday. “It will be all right. We will undertake all necessary steps for our banks to provide information about American taxpayers,” Siluanov said. […]
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MOSCOW, January 17 (RIA Novosti) Up to a fifth of Russians work in a shadow economy that does not generate adequate tax payments, the country’s labor minister said Friday. “Fifteen to 20 percent of citizens” work jobs that do not provide proper tax and social security payments to the government, Maxim Topilin told an economic forum in Moscow. “I […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber – December 13, 2013) President Vladimir Putin capped off a year of aggressively seeking to fill the government’s coffers by announcing Thursday that the government would begin to tax Russian offshore companies and no longer support foreign-registered enterprises. Praising Russia’s improving business environment, Putin also used his annual Constitution Day speech to highlight […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO. Dec 4 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin ruled out the idea of boosting the tax burden on ordinary citizens in order to resolve problems facing entrepreneurs. The president criticized a proposal to collect additional budget funds to create infrastructure for housing construction, for example, by introducing an excise tax on soda pop. “Don’t do that. This means that a […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – November 26, 2013) President Vladimir Putin on Monday proposed a measure aimed at mollifying a business community alarmed by a recent Kremlin-sponsored tax crime bill. The legislation, which earlier caused Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to lose his poise and lash out in a rare public disagreement with his boss, would give employees […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 21, 2013) Russia has risen eight points to rank 56th best country in the latest survey of taxation environment, which is part of the World Bank’s Doing Business effort. The improvement was thanks to a reduction of administrative red tape, but the survey of 189 countries found that it still cost Russian companies too […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – November 19, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin is frustrated with the slow progress in his anti-corruption drive and struggling to take charge of the situation. Having ignored the problem for over a decade, the president has been forced to finally deal with the problem of graft, as Russia can […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin and Delphine d’Amora – November 18, 2013) While the Kremlin considers possible modifications to a bill that will restore investigators’ power to open tax fraud cases, lobbyists said small businesses and individual entrepreneurs, whose numbers are decreasing, are the ones most threatened by the legislation in its current form. The tempest centers on […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 14 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin has ruled out the possibility of restoring the practice where police were authorized to prosecute violators of tax laws. Putin, who was speaking at a meeting of the supervisory board of the Strategic Initiatives Agency, was referring to proposals for changes to the Criminal Code to adjust it to the 2011 liberalization […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 14 (Interfax) – Former Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin, today head of the Civil Initiatives Committee, has slammed as a “major backward step” a draft law to bring back the practice where law enforcement agencies could bypass tax authorities in prosecuting suspected tax crimes. “I support those who don’t consider it correct to empower law enforcement authorities to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Delphine d’Amora – November 15, 2013) President Vladimir Putin has reprimanded officials for discussing government issues in the mass media and suggested that those who oppose government policy had better leave their posts. The president was speaking Thursday at a meeting of the Strategic Initiatives Advisory Board when he was asked about a contentious bill […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Delphine d’Amora – November 7, 2013) Prominent members of the business community have sent an appeal to President Vladimir Putin asking for a reevaluation of amendments to the Criminal Code, which Putin himself submitted to the State Duma on Oct. 11, Vedomosti reported Thursday. The amendments would authorize investigators to open tax cases at their […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 6, 2013) The Investigative Committee has developed a bill criminalizing tax optimization transactions, Vedomosti reported Wednesday. The proposed bill is set to amend the Tax Code by introducing definitions for “imaginary” and “fictitious” financial transactions. These terms refer to transactions which business either did not complete, or have completed, but fudged the description and […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 21, 2013) The introduction of the widely discussed new real estate tax that is set to replace the old system of levying fees on property with a market-oriented approach will not take place until 2015, a news report said. The bill was submitted to the government in August, but needs to be revised and […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 15, 2013) President Vladimir Putin has submitted to the State Duma a bill that would restore the right of investigators to open tax fraud cases without a request from the tax authorities a move that critics fear could lead to a renewed persecution of business executives, a news report said Tuesday. If approved, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Vladimir Goryachev and Oleg Sukhov – September 3, 2013) Mayoral candidate Alexei Navalny has voiced support for an economic amnesty and a windfall tax on some privatized assets at a high-profile meeting with businessmen and top executives, Vedomosti reported. The event was the first public meeting with entrepreneurs during Navalny’s campaign, with the previous ones […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Maria Stambler – August 20, 2013) When Westerners think of Russia, bears, snow, matryoshki and, of course, vodka are among the first things that come to mind. The pervasiveness and social acceptance of vodka have attracted the government’s attention in recent years due to worrying levels of alcoholism. According to a 2011 report by the […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 14, 2013) The vast majority of Russians see not paying their debts as an ethically unacceptable act, whereas they are much more willing to suspend moral judgment on tax evasion, a new poll showed Wednesday. Only 3 percent of the respondents said that leaving a debt unpaid was acceptable, compared with 95 percent who […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – July 22, 2013) The fight against tax evasion by multinational corporations and measures to ensure recovery amid the global economic turbulence came into the limelight at the two-day meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers that finished in Moscow on Saturday. Finance ministers and central bank governors of the world’s 20 biggest […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 19, 2013) The Federal Tax Service has accused election watchdog Golos of not paying 2.28 million rubles ($70,200) in income taxes in 2009-10 on funding it received from USAID, in what rights activists see as the latest in a string of state attacks on independent observers. Auditors from Tax Inspectorate No. 9 concluded that […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 11, 2013) Russian Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin has denounced the postmortem conviction of late Hermitage Capital auditor Sergei Magnitsky by Moscow’s Tverskoi Court. “I object to trying people post mortem. There is an element of some ancient pagan mentality in this,” Lukin told Interfax on Thursday. “Then let’s arrange the trial of Ivan the Terrible […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 11, 2013) British investment fund Hermitage Capital has attacked Thursday’s posthumous conviction of its lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and in absentia conviction of its chief executive William Browder. “This trial reflects the authorities’ disrespect for fundamental international legal values and personal rights and freedoms,” Hermitage said in a statement made available to Interfax. Moscow’s Tverskoi Court convicted […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 10, 2013) Russia will not see any significant changes in its tax system within the next three years, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting with members of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE) board. The government has endorsed the principal areas of its tax policy development for 2014-2016, he said. “No […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 5, 2013) A former tax inspector included on a draft version of the Magnitsky List of Russian officials banned from the United States for human rights abuses has become a suspect for Russian investigators looking into a huge tax scam, Kommersant newspaper reported Friday. Olga Tsymai, a former employee of the Federal Tax Service, […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 29, 2013) Prominent French actor Gerard Depardieu, who recently became a citizen of Russia, believes Russia needs such a leader as President Vladimir Putin. “Putin and I are friends. He is a very strong personality, and Russia needs exactly such kind of leader now,” Depardieu said at a press conference on Saturday following the press screening […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – June 21, 2013) Opposition lawmakers and businessmen said at a panel Thursday that Russia had lost billions of dollars due to cuts in import tariffs after its accession to the World Trade Organization. The panel was attended by groups lobbying the interests of the engineering, agriculture and clothing industries but was ignored […]
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(Interfax -ST. PETERSBURG, June 20, 2013) It would be feasible to introduce a progressive income tax scale in Russia in 2018, when the current political cycle ends, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov told reporters on the sidelines of the St Petersburg Economic Forum. “It would probably make sense to make the transition to different taxation for personal income from […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yuri Paniyev, special to RBTH – June 18, 2013) With the G8 summit in full swing in Northern Ireland, the world’s leaders try to tackle financial and international challenges including tax evasion, the Middle East stand-off, the Syrian crisis and the North Korea nuclear problem. G8 leaders began their two-day summit at the […]
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