The Tax Hub

Russia has published Federal Law No. 302-FZ of 3 August 2018 on amending part one and two of the Tax Code for improving tax administration. The law includes measures to:

• Amend the domestic controlled transaction thresholds for transfer pricing purposes, which includes changing the general RUB 1 billion transaction threshold so that it only applies to transactions where:
  • The parties apply different corporate tax rates, with certain exceptions;
  • One of the parties is subject to the mineral extraction tax, where the rate is expressed as a percentage;
  • One of the parties is subject to a special tax regime; or
  • One of the parties is exempt from corporate income tax;
• Amend the RUB 60 million transaction threshold that had applied for certain domestic transactions so that it applies for cross-border transactions;
• Simplify the VAT refund procedures and improve VAT audit procedures;
• Abolish the tax on movable property reported as fixed assets on the balance sheet (the 1.1% tax was effectively reintroduced from 1 January 2018 through a change in tax law in 2017); and
• Extend the moratorium on the formation of consolidated tax groups and the accession of new participants to existing groups.

The measures generally apply from 1 January 2019.