Companies leaving the Russian market paid 20 billion rubles to the Russian budget

At the end of last year, foreign companies sent 3 billion rubles for “free contributions”, and from the beginning of 2023, another 17 billion rubles, RBC calculated.

According to Roman Rechkin, a senior partner at the Intellect law firm, the legal nature of the “obligation to voluntarily transfer to the federal budget” is unclear. If these are donations, then the company can record these funds in expenses and reduce income tax. However, if this is a mandatory payment for the provision of “utility services”, then it is already a “fee” according to the Tax Code. In turn, the Tax Code prohibits the establishment of taxes and rates that are not provided for in it.

Another question is who exactly should pay this fee. The executive director of the Dviteks law firm, Zhanna Supryaga, and the managing partner of the Moscow bar association Nikolaev and Partners, Yuri Nikolaev, added that not only the seller, but also the buyer can do this – the wording in the deed of the meetings of the government commission are very vague.

• Since the beginning of the special operation and for the whole of last year, only 8.5% of foreign companies managed to get out of Russia. Of those who have left, most are from the United States. Of those that remain, most are from Germany. Experts reported that as of February 2022, 2,405 subsidiaries of 1,404 EU and G7 companies were operating in Russia. By the end of November, only 120 companies had sold at least one of their Russian subsidiaries.