Foreigners will be able to participate in tax audits of Russian companies

Foreign tax authorities will be able to participate in inspections of Russian companies, this follows from the draft order of the Federal Tax Service, to which Vedomostidrew attention . This opportunity was enshrined in the Tax Code back in 2011, but it was not possible to take advantage of it, since the procedure was not prescribed.

Details

• Now, in order to gain access to tax information of Russian companies and participate in their audit, foreign authorities need to submit a request to the Federal Tax Service (which can take more than two months to be considered).
• But the Federal Tax Service may refuse. This applies to cases where foreigners want to obtain documents that do not require participation in tax audits to access. In addition, the Russian agency may hide information relating to individual companies or people, as well as tax secrets.
• Similarly, Russian tax authorities will be able to participate in the inspection of foreign companies.

Joint audits will make it possible to obtain tax information about transnational companies and transnational transactions in an accelerated manner; now this may take six months, noted Taxadvisor senior lawyer Viktor Andreev. In his opinion, this practice can be useful for business, since participation in inspections of foreign authorities will allow resolving controversial situations - when, for example, in one country companies were assessed additional taxes, but in another they are not refunded what they had already paid.

Liana Faizova