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The RSPP Russian Business Week annual tax conference was held on March 17 under the title of ‘Transparency and De-offshorization: Opportunities and Challenges’.
The event’s general partner was PricewaterhouseCoopers Russia, while Taxcom stepped into the role of partner.
The main topics discussed at the conference was what President Putin called ‘de-offshorisation’ of Russia’s economy but substantial time was devoted to reduction of fiscal burdens, protection of property rights and optimizing tax administration as well.
Speakers at the conference, moderated by Russia Today’s Oxana Derevyanko, included RSPP President Alexander Shokhin, Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Shatalov, Deputy Economic Development Minister Sergey Belyakov, Deputy Federal Tax Service Head Daniil Yegorov, head of the Tax Administration Optimization Roadmap task force Boris Nuraliyev, PwC partner Mikhail Filinov, ‘InterFax’ Finance & Economic Info CEO Sergey Yakovlev, ‘Taxcom’ Board Chairman Alexander Melikjanyan and Interagency Analytical Centre Deputy CEO Yury Simachev.
Starting off the event, RSPP President Alexander Shokhin identified the main dimensions that will have to be developed if Russian government is to encourage companies to choose in favour of Russia as their tax jurisdiction. These are tax reduction (including tax exemption aimed at encouraging technological modernization), reform of the judicial system and civil and corporate legislation.
Speaking of legislation, RSPP President mentioned that ‘de-offshorization’ was not tantamount to sanctions. “A ban on foreign registration of companies is not the only way to do it. The important thing is that, wherever the company in question is registered, its taxes should go straight to Russia’s budget”, Mr. Shokhin said.