Russian developers are not against "Google tax on Google

The largest Russian Internet companies Mail.ru Group, Rambler & Co, as well as, possibly, Yandex and other domestic Internet-Mastodonts generally support the idea of introducing the so-called “Google tax” in Russia-value added tax (VAT) from Russia's services like Google and Apple, the participants say, the participants say meetings on the discussion of the bill, which has already passed the first reading in the State Duma. The meeting was held by the head of the Duma Committee on Information Policy Leonid Levin.

Levin in an interview with Vedomosti assured that most of the participants in the meeting supported the bill in the form in the form of the deputies approved. They are worried about, according to the deputy, only the government’s proposal to completely abandon the idea of tax deductions. Such an idea is contained in the government imprisonment on the bill published on the Duma website. Changes will lead to losses of the Russian budget, it is said: first of all, the incomes of the constituent entities of the Federation will suffer and there will be a need to compensate for them from the federal budget.

The bill obliging Internet companies to pay VAT in Russia, regardless of the country of origin, was submitted to the State Duma in February of this year by deputies Andrei Lugov and Vladimir Parakhin. The deputies proposed to cancel the preferences currently for software developers (they do not pay VAT in the sale of exclusive rights to programs and databases). And in order to compensate for the damage to Russian software companies, the authors of the project proposed allowing them to make a VAT deduction when selling software and services to foreign customers.

Earlier, we already wrote about the fears of the Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC) in the emergence of massive growth in electronic services in connection with the adoption of new amendments to the bill. In the case of the introduction of a “Google tax”, foreign companies fall into an interesting legislative conflict: they will need to start a taxpayer’s office, start using an electronic signature and open accounts in the bank, but the above -listed movements will not be made under the current legislation, they warn in RAEC.

Mail.ru Group supports the bill, subject to the maintenance of adequate compensatory measures for Russian business, the representative of the group says. In general, the payment of VAT at the place of residence of the buyer is a world practice, he believes, but the bill in its current form involves the abolition of VAT benefits for Russian companies. At the same time, the VAT deduction for local market participants in the export of electronic services and an additional income tax deduction are used abroad and could equalize the tax burden on Russian Internet companies and their foreign competitors, says Mail.ru Group. Benefits for Russian developers will allow you to save the Internet as one of the fastest growing industries in the country, a representative of Rambler & Co echoes him. The representative of Yandex refused to comment.

RAEK: “Google Tax” will provoke an increase in electronic services prices

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