FBK joined the tax forum hosted by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs

The FBK experts took part in the tax forum “Fiscal Burden on Russia's Economy: Tax and Non-tax Issues” held in Moscow, March 21.

The plenary session was highlighted by the keynote speech delivered by Dr Igor Nikolaev, Director of Strategic Analysis Institute of FBK. He spoke on the evaluation of the tax burden on business environment in Russia’s economy.

As explained by the economist, the level of a fiscal burden is critical in terms of growth and operation of companies. The current level of a fiscal burden is not adequate, with 2015 figure being substantially higher than that during the recession years of 2008-2009.

To put the economy on a solid footing, a fiscal burden has to be reduced, the expert said.

He went on to say that “We should note that the measures taken by the government to reduce the tax burden haven’t yielded the anticipated results: the moratorium on the increase of tax does not affect the vast part of non-tax payments, while it has been resolved that a number of types of taxes and levies will be increased.” There is a still more serious issue, according to Nikolaev, the freezing of tax rates does not ensure the respective freezing of a fiscal burden, because the latter depends not only on the total tax amount but on the tax base as well (GDP, companies’ turnover, gross value added, etc)

According to Nikolaev, Russia’s economy hasn’t had a uniform and unanimously recognized assessment framework applied to an overall level of a tax burden which up to the present day.
“Hopefully, we’ve come up with the applicable framework, the forum participants have welcomed our approach towards estimating the fiscal burden. Now the ball is on the Government’s side,” he added.

The expert believes that adoption of a uniform assessment framework of a tax burden and enhancement of information transparency on the part of the Government in terms of forming and administrating tax rates and non-tax payments are the objectives which, if achieved, could enable the growth of business despite challenging macroeconomic environment.

The second sessional part of the forum has seen participation of Galina Аkchurina, Director of Tax Litigations at FBK who moderated the discussion “BEPS Action Plan and its Implementation”. The speakers discussed the implications of the BEPS action plan on the Russian business, measures to be taken by companies with respect to information disclosure and transfer pricing to ensure compliance with the BEPS requirements and exchanged their views on the practical steps on the way to meeting the requirements stipulated by this international regulation.

The Tax Forum is organised and held under the aegis of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) and is one of the most respected platforms for discussion and policy elaboration for business community on the major economic issues. The 9th annual forum united Russian prominent economists, leaders of field-specific ministries and services, policy makers of the Federal Assembly, academic community and leading advisory firms.

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