Forte Tax & Law

Some significant changes in the regulation of transfer pricing in Russia came into effect on January 1, 2024. In our opinion, there are two key objectives that they pursue: - One is to encourage taxpayers to take a more conservative approach to setting transfer prices by raising costs for businesses where transfer prices are found to be inconsistent with the arm’s length principle; and - The other is to ease the administration of transfer prices to for tax authorities, sometimes by increasing the administrative burden on businesses. We will take a closer look at these changes below. To read the legal alert please click on the link below https://lnkd.in/drXrK_a9

Recent decrees of the Russian President are imposing more and more restrictions on payments, settlements, and transactions involving foreign persons. Leading Forte Tax & Law lawyers will host a free webinar to talk about the key restrictions imposed on transactions with a foreign element and share their current experience. We will explore ✔ Current restrictions on cross-border payments: loan repayments and dividends ✔Restrictions on investment abroad ✔Set-offs and other non-monetary methods for terminating obligations under foreign trade transactions ✔Transactions requiring authorization from the Russian Government ✔Commission and the Russian Federal Anti-Monopoly Service. New clarifications from the Central Bank of Russia ✔Obtaining authorizations from the Russian Government Commission. ✔Specifics and practical experience ✔Special considerations related to structuring M&A involving foreign persons ✅ Free attendance. Participation is closed to representatives of Russian law firms and legal advisors. 💬 Language: Russian Click the link to register https://lnkd.in/dQycCsY3

On April 10, 2024, Kommersant released the results of its annual survey—a ranking of Russia’s best law firms. 🏆 Four of the legal practices of Forte Tax & Law are recommended in the regional ranking in the following categories: ✔ Tax law: Consulting, ✔Tax law: Resolution of disputes with the Russian Federal Tax Service, ✔Foreign trade activities, ✔Corporate law / Mergers and acquisitions of Russian assets: Mid-market. In the industry section of the survey, experts ranked our work in two categories: ✔Retail trade, FMCG: Consulting and ✔ Agriculture: Consulting. As for the individual ranking of lawyers, three of Forte Tax & Law lawyers are recognized: Anton Kabakov, Partner, Julia Talagaeva, Senior Associate, and Natalia Vorobyeva, Senior Associate. Anton is recommended in as many as five categories: ✔Foreign trade activities, ✔Corporate law: M&A, ✔Tax law: Consulting, ✔Retail trade, FMCG, and ✔Agriculture. Julia is recommended in the categories ✔‘Foreign trade activities’ and ✔ ‘Corporate law: M&A’. Natalia Vorobyeva is recognized in the category ‘Tax law: Disputes’.

👉 It’s Time to Hold Annual General Meetings—It May Be Done In Absentia in 2024 This time of the year has come again when companies need to approve their financial results for the previous year. Limited liability companies will have to approve their financial results for 2023 not later than April 30, 2024, and joint-stock companies not later than June 30, 2024 (unless otherwise provided by the company’s charter). Regular general meetings of shareholders convened for companies to approve their annual results cannot generally be held in absentia, i.e. they must be held only in person. To know more please click on the link https://lnkd.in/dDcRHcn4

❗ Effective from April 1, 2024, it is no longer required to submit documents to the bank with respect to foreign trade transactions, the value of which does not exceed RUB 1 million. Changes to the Instruction of the Bank of Russia that sets out the rules for submitting documents and information to the bank when companies carry out currency transactions will take effect on April 1, 2024. To know more please click on the link https://lnkd.in/dmAFQcTz

The Bank of Russia has published new Clarifications No. 1-OP dated March 22, 2024 on the procedure for applying Decree No. 95 of the Russian President dated March 5, 2022. As you may remember, in performing their obligations with respect to loans, borrowings, and financial instruments to persons from so-called “unfriendly” countries (“non-residents”), Russian residents are required to comply with the temporary procedure established by Presidential Decree No. 95. As set forth in Presidential Decree No. 95, obligations for an amount of over RUB 10 million, or a foreign currency equivalent, a month are to be performed using a special type “C” account opened with an authorized Russian bank or to the counterparty under an individual authorization issued by the Bank of Russia and the Russian Ministry of Finance. To know more please click on the link https://lnkd.in/dWhbqKk7

We are pleased to announce that two representatives of Forte Tax & Law — Anton Kabakov and Julia Talagaeva — have been elected to co-chair sectoral committees of the Saint Petersburg International Business Association (SPIBA). Julia Talagaeva has become a co-chair of the Legal Committee for the first time, and Anton Kabakov has been re-elected as a co-chair of the Finance Committee. We would like to thank SPIBA members for their trust and will be happy to use this forum to promote legal and tax initiatives of our clients. Please contact Anton or Julia if you or your colleagues have any suggestions on any subjects, topical issues or questions that need to be addressed by the association, or if you would like to get acquainted with their previous presentations.