Putin allowed investigators to initiate tax cases without the consent of the Federal Tax Service

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law allowing investigators to initiate cases of tax crimes without materials from the Federal Tax Service. Under the new law, employees of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation must apply to the Federal Tax Service, but are not required to wait for a response.

A criminal case may be initiated by the investigator before receiving a conclusion or information from the tax authority, if there is a reason and sufficient data indicating the signs of a crime.

Pravo.ru

• The security forces lost the right to independently initiate tax cases in 2011. The relevant law was then signed by President Dmitry Medvedev. He allowed to start cases only after applying to the RF IC tax authorities.
• The return of the right to start tax affairs was sought by the chairman of the RF IC, Alexander Bastrykin. The main argument of supporters of this is that there are too few tax cases in Russia. As a result, a law was submitted to the State Duma on behalf of Vladimir Putin.
• Dmitry Medvedev has publicly criticized the law, claiming that investigators may be biased. Putin responded by saying that the dissatisfied can express their opinion, but then they should leave the civil service.