Goltsblat BLP advises that the Russian Ministry of Justice has registered Order No. 317/ММВ-7-2/481@ of the Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Tax Service dated 29 May 20171 (the "Order"), which was published on the Official Web Portal for Legal Information on 15 August 2017 and came into force on 26 August 2017.
The Order explains how Ministry of the Interior officers are to submit search and detection ("S&D") findings to the tax authorities, including at their reasonable request. For their part, the tax authorities will, twice a year (by 20 January and 20 July), inform the Ministry's agencies of the progress in and effect of using such findings for (1) tax audits, (2) collection of tax arrears from controlling persons (including actual managers and owners), and (3) identification of unreliable information in the Companies Register.
This Order is yet another step towards tax and law-enforcement agencies co-operating more over tax control.
The latest recommendations issued jointly by the Federal Tax Service and Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation2 mean that notification of law-enforcement bodies by tax authorities of the effect of using S&D findings might trigger an increase in tax-related criminal cases. Such cases are classed, by the way, not only under article 199 "Evasion of Taxes and/or Levies Payable by Organisations" of the Russian Criminal Code, but also under its much stricter article 159 "Fraud", which applies to similar offences relating to VAT refunds.
Originally published 25 September 2017
Footnotes
1. http://gblplaw.com/upload/pdf/Prikaz.pdf
2. http://gblplaw.com/news/legal/92945/
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