Withdrawal from the tax secrecy regime from some information on companies as well as specifying the medium of publication of this information will facilitate vetting potential or current partners. These changes will help to comply with due diligence when selecting a counterparty.
According to Article 102 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation any information concerning a taxpayer which is received by a tax authority, internal affairs bodies, investigative bodies, a body of a State non-budgetary fund or a customs authority shall constitute tax secrets, with the exception of information:
1. which is publicly available, including where it has become so with the consent of the taxpayer which owns the information. The consent shall be provided at taxpayer’s option in respect of all or a part of information obtained by tax authority adopted in the form, format and procedure established by authorized federal executive body, which is carrying out its duties with regard to control and supervision in the field of taxes and fees;
2. concerning the taxpayer’s identification number;
3. concerning violations of tax and levy legislation (including amounts of arrears and indebtednesses in respect of penalties and fines if any exist) and sanctions for those violations;
4. which is provided to the tax (customs) or law enforcement authorities of other states in accordance with international treaties (agreements) to which the Russian Federation is a party on mutual co-operation between tax (customs) and law enforcement authorities (to the extent of the information provided to those authorities);
5. which is provided to electoral commissions in accordance with legislation concerning elections following audits by a tax authority of information on the amount and sources of income of a candidate and of his or her spouse and on assets owned by a candidate and his or her spouse;
6. which is provided to the State Information System for State and Municipal Payments which is provided for in Federal Law No. 210-FZ of 27 July 2010 “Concerning the Organization of the Provision of State and Municipal Services”;
7. concerning special tax regimes applied by taxpayers and concerning the participation of a taxpayer in a consolidated group of taxpayers;
8. which is provided to local government bodies (government bodies in the cities with federal importance – Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Sevastopol) for the purpose of checking the completeness and accuracy of information submitted by payers of local levies for the purpose of the computation of levies, and concerning amounts of arrears of such levies.
Federal Law No. 134-FZ dated May 1, 2016 has introduced amendments to the Article, which have come into force on June 1, 2016. According to the amendments three items have been added to the list of information which does not concern tax secret.
9. Information on average number of employees for the calendar year previous to the year of publication the information on the Internet.
10. Information on paid amount of taxes and dues for the calendar year previous to the year of publication the information on the Internet excepted for the data of payments in case of goods entry to the customs area of the EEU or as tax agent.
11. Information on amounts of revenues and expenses according to accounting (financial) statements of the organization for the calendar year previous to the year of publication the information on the Internet.
The full text of the article in Russian is available via a link.
