«Tax policy in Russia in 2013: it will be necessary to spend a lot of money». A. Yakovlev, the head of FBK Legal Tax Litigation Practice at the online conference Finam.ru

On February 28, 2013 Alexey Yakovlev, the head of FBK Legal Tax Litigation Practice made a report at the online conference Finam. ru «Tax policy in Russia in 2013: it will be necessary to spend a lot of money». Recently there constantly arise conversations about various new taxes. Fiscal burden on business has again increased since January 1, 2013 and according to experts the general tax rate in Russia makes up 54.1 percent. How is to be the current state tax policy characterized? What is expected by taxpayers and what is the optimal level of tax burden? The experts were proposed to answer these questions.

Evaluating the Russian tax system Alexey Yakovlev in particular stated: «Our tax system to a largely degree has been built on borrowing models. What is to be «strengthened» that is stability and predictability in matters of law enforcement practice? Or else it is possible to live for years with certain understanding of specific tax standard but later only one precedent puts everybody «on ears».  As for administration there is definitely something in here to develop from the point of view specification of rights and obligations of tax relations participants».
Answering the question of releasing from criminal responsibility for tax crimes the lawyer reminded this is possible only subject to the voluntary repayment of debts to the budget and only provided the act occurs for the first time. «What’s wrong with that the budget has got everything needed and the person stumbled for the first time has not got a criminal offence article?»- Yakovlev is perplexed.
Concerning prospects of tax raise he has noted: «In conditions of the budget revenue decrease the problem of tax raise is likely to arise. According to statistics the most budget-generating taxes are the value-added tax (VAT) and manufacture expenses-add tax (MEAT). It is possible to assume that if the taxes are raised it is these taxes from which the increasing will start. The introduction of new taxes is unlikely. To the point the budget’s advantage of taking into force the new rules of TCI is not yet understandable enough. This instrument has being introduced for the purpose of counteracting tax optimization within groups of companies. The checks on these matters will just start this year».
Also in the conference there took part Edward Savulyak, the director of Moscow office of «Tax Consulting U.K.», Alexandra Suslina, the expert of the Economic Expert Group, Anton Sonichev, the lawyer of the «Tax collection» company, Anton Soroko, the analyst of «FINAM».