Russia is preparing to bring back uncollected taxes all over the world

The government introduced in the State Duma a bill on ratification of a Convention on mutual administrative assistance in tax matters. The Convention exists since 1988. At the moment around 70 states has signed it. In 39 of them it has already come into effect.

In Russia the Convention was signed as far back as 2011. It gives an opportunity to get assistance while collecting tax payables within the territory of the participating countries and sharing the tax information.

The majority of debtors to Russian budget are in the common law countries. Than follows the largest Russian foreign trade partners.

According to explanatory note, the effective debt of the legal entities to the Russian budget in Canada amounts to RUR 1,38 billion, in Turkey – RUR 1,22 billion and in the USA - RUR 1,10 billion. Accession to convention will help to return the part of this debt to the budget.

Apart from coming into effect of the Convention, the British beneficiary register will become the helping hand for Federal Tax Service of the RF in struggle with the offshore companies. Great Britain is the first country in EU that is going to make a list of the final profit beneficiaries of its companies. The register will contain information about the name, date of birth and nationality of the beneficiaries. At the same time, there will be data on the entities that hold more than 25% of the company’s share or control its activity other ways. The main goal of the register is to enhance the confidence to the British business.

However, the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation wouldn’t wait for English colleagues to create the register. Thus in April, 2014, the authority published the letter, where it is stated that intermediary company can’t be the final income beneficiary. As a result, Russian companies will have to prove who the final beneficiary is. Intermediary company should ask the income receiver for the confirmation that he is a beneficiary owner. However, this information might be denied by the data of receiver financial statements.