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Investor’s Business Guide

Taxation

The taxation system of the Russian Federation presents a body of federal, regional and local taxes and fees collected in the territory of the Russian Federation.

The legislation of the Russian Federation on taxes and fees consists of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation and the federal laws on the taxes and fees adopted in accordance to the Tax Code.

The Tax Code of the Russian Federation establishes a system of taxes and fees, as well as the general principles of taxation and fee collection in the Russian Federation, including:

  • types of taxes and fees collected in the Russian Federation;
  • the grounds for occurrence (change, cessation) and the procedures for tax and fees collections;
  • the principles of establishment, enforcement and invalidation of previously introduced taxes for the subjects of the Russian Federation and local taxes;
  • the rights and obligations of the taxpayers, taxing authorities and parties to relations regulated by the tax legislation;
  • forms and methods of the tax control;
  • liability for tax violations;
  • the appeal procedures in regards to the acts of tax authorities and action (inaction) of their officials.

The legislation of the Russian Federation on taxes and fees consists of the laws on the taxes of the residents of the Russian Federation, adopted in accordance with the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

The regulatory legal acts of the municipal bodies on the local taxes and fees are passed by the representative bodies of the municipalities in compliance with the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Federal taxes and duties

The federal taxes and fees are established by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation and are mandatory in the territory of the country. The federal taxes and fees are regarded to be the following:

Corporate profit tax

is payable by the Russian organisations (except for the ones that elected the special taxation framework and the ones operating gambling business) and foreign companies that act through the permanent representations and/or profit from sources in the Russian Federation.

The foreign companies that participate in the intorganisation of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2008-2017 are not considered as taxpayers in respect to the profits received in regards to the organisation and holding of the XXII Wer Olympics and XI Winter Paralympics in Sochi in 2014.

The organisations that elected the special taxation framework (an unified tax on imputed income) or operate a gambling business do not pay the corporate tax only in regards to the activities that are subject to the single tax on imputed income and to the gambling tax. Their other business activities are subject to the corporate tax by the standard procedure.

The taxable items of the Russian organisations are the received profits reduced by the amount of expenses.

The taxable income of foreign organisations, that operate their businesses in the Russian Federation through permanent represantations, are the profits received by those offices and reduced by the amount of the expenses produced by them.

The taxable income for other foreign organisations are the profits received from the sources in the Russian Federation.

The tax base is defined as the monetary value that exceeds the received profits over the expenses that were accounted for tax purposes. If the income is smaller than the expenses (losses occurred) then the tax base equals zero.

The tax base, assessed by different fees, is calculated separately on a cumulative total basis from the beginning of the fiscal year.

The tax rate for the Russian and foreign organisations, with a few exceptions, comprises 20%, from this sum 2% are contributed to the federal budget, and 18% to the regional budget.

In accordance with the existing legislation, the residents of the Russian Federation (certain categories of taxpayers) are entitled to lower tax rate, in particular, the rate for the regional budget, but no less than 13.5%.

Value added tax (VAT)

is payable by organisations, individual entrepreneurs and legal bodies that transfer goods across the customs border of the Russian Federation.

Certain types of companies are exempt from the taxation – in particular, the foreign companies that participate in the organisation of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, operating within the frames of organisation and holding of the XXII Winter Olympics and XI Paralympics of 2014 in Sochi.

Transfer of the property rights, sale of goods and services at the territory of the Russian Federation, transfer of goods and services for personal needs, provision of construction services for personal needs, import of goods to the Russian Federation are all subject to the taxation.

The tax base is determined separately according to the different business operations types, e.g. the sale of goods and services is determined by their cost with regards to the excise tax.

The goods and services determine the tax rates. Thus, the rate of 0% is applicable at the sale of goods and services in the field of space industry, for official usage by diplomatic and similar missions, and in certain other cases.

The rate of 10% is applicable for the sale of a large group of food products, goods for children, pharmaceuticals, printed products of educational, scientific and cultural nature, and in certain other cases.

The rate of 18% is applicable in all the cases that are not subjected to a lower tax rate.

The organisations and individual entrepreneurs can be relieved from the taxpaying duties if their income (excluding VAT) during 3 consecutive months did not exceed 2 million roubles.

Moreover, the following services are exempt from taxes: care over sick, disabled, or aged persons, services by institutions of culture and art in their sphere, sale of scrap metal and nonferrous waste, as well as in a range of other cases, specified by legislation.

A taxpayer that operates a business that is not subject to taxes, shall keep separate account.

Excise tax

is payable by organisations, individual entrepreneurs, and natural bodies that transfer goods across the customs border of the Russian Federation.

Sale of the exciseable goods in the territory of the Russian Federation, import of the exciseable goods across the custom border of the country, receipt of the denatured alcohol and straight-run gasoline, etc, are taxable operations.

The following goods are listed as exciseable: alcohol, beer, tobacco, motor vehicles, car fuel and straight-run gasoline, engine oils, spirits and alcohol containing liquids.

The tax base is defined as a measuring unit (litre, tonne, item, etc) of exciseable goods, for each separate type.

The tax rate (in percentage and/or rubles and kopeks per measuring item) are imposed separately for each kind of exciseable goods, including annual indexation. For example, in 2011 the tax rates will comprise from 0% (spirits containing perfume products) up to 259 roubles per 0.75 kW (vehicles with the output power exceeding 112.5 kW).

Income tax on individuals

is a tax levied on the income of individuals – residents of the Russian Federation, as well as non-residents that receive income from sources in the Russian Federation.

The tax is levied upon the income of the residents from the sources in the Russian Federation and abroad, and on the income of the non-residents received from the Russian sources.

Assessing the tax base all the earnings are taken into the account, received in monetary and in kind form, as well as in form of material gain. Different kinds of income deductions, including the ones by the court’s order, do not decrease the tax base.

The tax base is calculated separately by each kind of income that is assessed by different tax rates.

For the incomes that are taxed at the rate of 13%, the tax base is established as the monetary value of such income decreased by the sum of the tax deductions.

The incomes (expenses filed for deductions) received in the foreign currency, are calculated into roubles at the exchange rate of the Central Bank of Russia established on the date of the actual acquisition of income (date of actual incur of expenses).

The general tax rate for all kinds of income are set at 13% except for the ones listed below.

The taxation at 9% rate is levied in case of receipt of dividends, of mortgage-backed bonds issued before 1 January 2007, and of income by the founders fiduciary mortgage in case the income was received on the basis of acquisition of mortgage certificates issued by the trustors of the fiduciary mortgage before 1 January 2007.

The taxation at 15% rate is levied upon incomes received as return of investments from interests earned as the result of operations of Russian companies and obtained by the non-residents of the Russian Federation.

The taxation at 30% rate is imposed on all kinds of income received by non-residents of the Russian Federation, in exception to the income received as dividends from share participation in operations of Russian companies whose tax rate has been set at 15%.

The taxation at 35% rate is imposed (at excess of fixed limits) on the income from the cost of prizes by the result of contests or other activities of commercial nature, on the interest income from bank deposits, on the amount of percentage saving when borrowing funds.

Tax on mineral resource extraction

is payable by organisations and individual entrepreneurs that are registered and recognised as developers of subsurface resources.

The taxable entities include earth materials extracted at the lawfully obtained land lot, or recycled from industry waste and subject to separate licensing.

The tax base is established as the cost of the extracted earth materials, for each separate type of material, and with regard to different tax rates.

The tax rates are imposed on each separate kind of the earth material – from 0% (mineral water) up to 17.5% (gas condensate from raw hydrocarbon deposits).

Water tax

is imposed on the organisations and natural entities that utilise water in special or specific way in accordance with the existing legislation.

The following types of water utilisation is subject to taxation – water withdrawal from bodies of water, usage of bodies of water without withdrawal of water for hydraulic power industry, usage of the surface area of bodies of water (except for timber rafting), usage of bodies of water for timber rafting.

The tax base is calculated for each kind of water utilisation and each body of water separately.

The tax rate is established depending on the basins of rivers, lakes, seas and by the economic zones. The measuring unit is expressed in rouble per 1 thousand cubic metre of water (withdrawn, used).

The Stamp Duty

is payable by organisations and natural entities, when referring for legal act execution (notarial acts, civil registrations, state registration, etc) or act as defendants before the court.

The taxable items for the Stamp Duty include execution of legal acts as well as participation at the courts of general jurisdiction, courts of arbitration, or referring to the justices of the peace.

The amount of the Stamp Duty is established according to the type of the civil acts and the categories of the payers.

Tax on animal and water wildlife

is levied upon the licensed organisations and natural entities (for hunting, fishing).

The taxable items include the items of animal and water wildlife, the extraction of which from their natural environment is done by the special license.

The tax rate is set for each item of animal and water wildlife, as well as for the water bio-resources – sea mammals.

Environmental tax

is payable by the organisations and foreign legal and natural entities when operating businesses that involve the usage of natural resources (environmental pollution by emissions into the atmosphere, pollutant discharge into the water bodies, and waste disposal).

The items for taxation is measured by the amount (in the actual measurement) of emission of the pollutants into the atmosphere from the stationary and mobile sources, of the discharge of pollutants into the subsoil and surface waters, of other damaging effects (noise, vibrations, radiation, ionising, electromagnetic and other kinds of physical impacts), etc.

The tax rates are set in roubles per item of amount of emissions, discharges and other damaging impacts.

The contribution for the compulsory social insurance against industrial accidents and occupational illnesses

is levied upon the Russian and foreign employers, including the ones that elected the unified tax on imputed income, for certain kinds of economic activities (hunting, horse breeding, extraction of oil, coal, uranium ore, etc).

The accrued payment from all incomes of the employees depending on the group of economy branches and according to the class of professional risks (from class 22 up to class 32) is subject to taxation.

The amount of the contribution (in percentage) is established according to the types of economic activities by the class of professional risks.

Insurance contributions

(that substitute the Unified Social tax from 1 January 2010 ) is payable by the organisations and natural entities that provide payments and other contributions to the individuals, as well as by natural entities (advocates, notaries, individual entrepreneurs) that do not provide payments to other entities.

The items taxed by the insurance contribution represent payments and other contributions accrued for the benefit of natural entities on the basis of the labour, civil and publisher agreements. Since 2010 the margins of the levied base have been set which comprises 415,000 roubles per each employee (on a cumulative total from the beginning of the year). At the excess of this sum, the insurance contributions cease. From 2011 the margins of the levied base is subject to indexation in accordance with the growth of the average income in the country.

In 2011 the amount of the insurance contribution (irrespective of the taxation framework) is set at 34%.

In this case the insurance contributions shall be transferred separately to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation (26%), Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation (2.9%), Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund (2.1%) and the Moscow City Fund of Compulsory Medical Insurance (3%)

Legislation   Investment protection