MOSCOW, November 19 (Sputnik) — The upper house of the Russian parliament, Federation Council, approved on Wednesday amendments to the Russian Tax Code concerning the taxation of profits of companies owned by Russians that are registered in other jurisdictions.
The State Duma, the lower house of the parliament, passed the law on the deoffshorization of the Russian economy on Tuesday.
The law obliges individuals and legal entities that control foreign companies to notify tax authorities of their shares in them as well as provide the information on the companies themselves.
Russian tax residents will have to declare their retained earnings. The minimum amount of profit subject to declaration will be 50 million rubles (about $1 million) in 2015, 30 million rubles in 2016 and 10 million rubles beyond 2017.
The controlling agent of a foreign company is an individual or a legal entity owning more than 50 percent in 2015 and more than 25 percent from 2016 and beyond.
The document also lays out penalties for such companies that fail to pay taxes. The fine will stand at 20 percent of the amount of unpaid taxes and will not be less than 100,000 rubles. Should the controlling agent or the company in question fail to provide information about itself, the penalty will be 100,000 rubles per company.
Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Shatalov said that first tax statements may start coming in at the end of 2016 or in early 2017. According to his estimates, the federal budget's extra income could reach 20 billion rubles.
