Points of support and growth

Representatives of the Federal Tax Service and big business once again met on the same platform to discuss the accumulated issues from the world of taxes and finance, find guidance in the flow of changes and develop joint solutions, taking into account the experience and knowledge of legislators and practitioners.

The conference brought together 44 experts, including 3 representatives of the Federal Tax Service, and 187 listeners. The event was of interest to the largest federal publications. The editors of Interfax, Forbes, 1prime.ru, RBC, Russia Today quoted the speakers on their pages. And this is not surprising, because most of the program was devoted to topical issues of international cooperation: entering new markets, creating new financial and transport chains, foreign exchange settlements, etc. In the current situation, many companies are forced to restructure their work with foreign partners.

As part of the general session, a detailed review of the processes taking place in the global economy was offered by Yuri Simachev, Professor, Director for Economic Policy, National Research University Higher School of Economics. The speaker made a special emphasis on what our companies have already managed to create to replace the departed foreign counterparts, and where are potentially interesting areas for business.

Central to the topic of international financial relations was an open dialogue with Alexandra Kadet, Head of the Transfer Pricing Department of the Federal Tax Service. The expert noted that among the reasons for concern, business sees the refusal of other countries to provide tax information. Alexandra reassured the audience by explaining that the legal grounds for exchanging data and mutual assistance in collecting taxes with the EU countries remain. Russia remains a member of the Strasbourg Convention and can exchange information with other countries automatically according to the Common Reporting Standard (CRS). This allows the Federal Tax Service to learn about the accounts and assets of Russians abroad and transfer the same information about the assets of foreigners in Russia abroad.

The topic of interaction with foreign contractors continued to be discussed in the executives’ room. And here it is worth noting the session dedicated to international payments, with the participation of key players from the business. Andrey Varnavsky, head of the Ingosstrakh blockchain platform, spoke about participation in the pilot project of the digital ruble. Andrey Mikhailishin, member of the expert council of the State Duma of the Russian Federation on the issue of legislative regulation of cryptocurrencies — on the use of digital currencies and DFA within the framework of experimental legal regimes. Denis Dodon, Director of the Alfa-Bank Innovation Center, proposed new options for cross-border payments and shared his thoughts on the future of tokenized settlements.

It is not easy for businesses to solve the problems of restructuring the supply chain. Oleg Alkhamov, General Director of FM Logistic Russia, offered his vision and experience. He told how to organize the flow of imports from Europe and Asia and what roundabout ways exist. The audience considered useful the speech by Igor Burlov, General Director of Arneis, about the difficulties of settlements with countries that do not accept payments from Russia, and about the use of a payment agent. The topic of transportation was completed by Andrey Baranets, a representative of the B1 company, his block was devoted to the customs aspects of the legalization of parallel imports.

The case-session «Russian business in friendly countries» attracted special attention of big business. Real experience was shared by Natalia Manina, head of the tax department of Power Machines, Adil Akavov, manager of the AK GROUP group of companies and Denis Shushin, adviser to Middle East Desk, representative of BGP Litigation. They gave a lot of up-to-date information about aspects of tax legislation in Iran, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, about the specifics of doing business in Turkey and the UAE.

In the hall for experts there were no less sensitive topics and heated discussions

A heated discussion of practice under Art. 54.1 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation was held as part of a case session with the participation of Konstantin Novoselov, Deputy Head of the Control Department of the Federal Tax Service. Participants analyzed several practical cases. One of them was presented by Natalia Dronova, head of the accounting and taxation methodology department at Rolf. She spoke about the cleaning industry «whitewashing» project: what difficulties she had to face and what means to achieve success.

In the session on Tax Monitoring, the speech of Anna Goncharova, Head of the Tax Administration Department at Norilsk Nickel, about the pilot connection to the Tax 3 AIS, was especially memorable. The expert, based on personal experience, pointed out bottlenecks in the connection process and gave recommendations on how to get around them. But it would still be difficult for students to understand the nuances of the system without the help of Ekaterina Bochkareva, Deputy Head of the Information Technology Implementation Department of the Tax Monitoring Department of the Federal Tax Service. Ilarion Lemetuinen, partner of Kept, moderated the discussion and shared recommendations.

But at the conference, not only difficulties were discussed. One of the presentations was devoted to regional incentives that companies can take advantage of. Tatyana Kofanova, representative of Business Solutions and Technologies, and Kseniya Sizova, a representative of the B1 company discussed the current practice on special investment contracts, agreements on the protection and promotion of capital investments, etc.

The organizers proposed to finish the business part of the event with a look into the future. «Actual trends in tax planning: secrets of methodology» was the last session. Alexey Artyukh, Partner at Taxology, Ekaterina Boldinova, Head of Tax Practice at Five Stones Consulting, and Alena Gatina, Chief Accountant at Nissan Manufacturing Rus shared their secrets. They told how in their organizations they are working on the tax burden on business, what legally permitted opportunities they use, what benefits they apply.

The program of the VII practical conference was very rich. The interactive forms offered by the organizers allowed the experts to analyze many practical situations, and the listeners to become full-fledged participants in the discussion and study legislative changes without interrupting the current financial reality.

The result of the event, the high activity of the audience is largely the merit of the brilliant duo of presenters Alexander Erasov and Evgeny Timofeev. Having excellent knowledge of the issues, they helped the participants to understand the program, put them in a businesslike mood and relieved tension after heated discussions.

And, of course, the conference would not have taken place without the support of our regular partners — B1, Trust Technologies, Taxology, Timofeev, Gusev & Partners, Five Stones Consulting, Guskov & Associates LP, KSK Group, Pravovest Audit, Legikon Pravo, BGP Litigation, Kept and Consultant Plus.

Seven is said to be a lucky number. Of course, and the past conference only confirms this. But we do not intend to stop there. Ahead of us all are waiting for new events that will help businesses find their bearings in a sea of changes, find not only a stable position, but also points of development.

If for some reason you could not attend the conference, but really want to understand the many tax changes, you can purchase a recording of the conference. It contains records of all reports from two streams and presentations of speakers.