- Explanations of the Russian Supreme court (hereinafter – the Court) on the prohibition of using of the Declaration on Amnesty of capital in criminal cases
The Court explained that Federal law No. 140-FZ of 8 June 2015 established an absolute prohibition on using as evidence in criminal cases the fact of submitting of a Declaration or documents, as well as information contained in the Declaration and documents attached to the Declaration. As stated in the Explanations, according to part 3, 4 and 6 art. 4 of Federal law No. 140-FZ of June 8, 2015 information from Declarations and documents attached thereto is a tax secret, the storage and access to which is provided exclusively by the tax authorities. Other bodies and organizations have no right to access them, even through a court decision. All conflicts between the norms of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, the Federal law of August 12, 1995 No. 144-FZ "on operational investigative activities" and the Federal law of June 8, 2015 No. 140-FZ should be resolved in favor of the latter.
- Tax Inspectorate No. 7 in Moscow issued a fine to Alexei Ermakov in an amount of 127.5 million rubles for transactions in a foreign bank prohibited by Russian currency law.
In 2017 Ermakov borrowed 170 million rubles from Unibank operating in Armenia to buy the shares in a local company. The money he received to the account at the same bank was considered as a violation of Russian currency law. The tax Inspectorate learned about the transaction from the report on the movement of funds on the foreign account and the transaction passport. The amount of the fine issued was 75% of the loan amount.
- The Ministry of Finance of Russia abandoned the initiative to reduce the period of stay in Russia for obligatory recognition as a tax resident
The government of the Russian Federation has decided not to reduce from 183 to 90 days the period of stay in Russia, which obligatory determines the tax residency. At the same time, such a reduced period will be allowed in case of an individual's desire to volunatarary become a tax resident of the Russian Federation.