The EU has included the Russian Federation in the list of countries that it considers tax havens, without consulting with Moscow, Russia does not know the reasons for the adoption of the corresponding decision. This was announced on February 14 by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation.
It is noted that in February last year, changes were made to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which improved the regime of Special Administrative Regions (SAR) in accordance with the comments of the EU.
“However, since March last year, all contacts with the EU in the tax field have been suspended indefinitely. The decision to include Russia on the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions, the so-called “EU black list”, was taken without consultation with us. The reasons for making such a decision are unknown to us, ”the Ministry of Finance said in a message on the Telegram channel.
Meanwhile, the department stressed that the process of improving Russian tax legislation will continue.
The EU Council’s statement on Russia’s inclusion in the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes was published earlier in the day. It was clarified that the dialogue with Moscow on issues related to taxation stopped after the start of a special operation to protect the civilian population of Donbass.
There are two lists in the EU – “black”, which includes countries where international tax standards are not observed, states do not cooperate with the EU on tax issues, and “gray”, which includes jurisdictions that have committed themselves to adjusting their tax policy .
As Dmitry Labin, a professor at MGIMO and a specialist in international law, also noted on February 14 in an interview with Izvestia, the decision of the EU to include Russia in the list of countries that it considers tax havens is due to an aggressive anti-Russian line, and not legal arguments. The expert explained that the special administrative regions (SAR), which served as the reasons for including Russia in the “gray” list, were created by the Russian government primarily in order to provide comfortable conditions for the return of business, which fits into the concept of deoffshorization.
As early as February 11, Konstantin Asabin, head of the tax directorate of Alfa Capital Management Company, told Izvestiya that the inclusion of Russia in the “gray” list of tax havens could turn into a complication of dialogue with European banks. In particular, according to him, transactions will slow down, and opening accounts will become more difficult.
SAR are territories with a preferential tax regime for investors, created in 2018 to repatriate capital and protect businesses with Russian roots from sanctions. There are two of them in Russia: on the Oktyabrsky Islands in the Kaliningrad Region and Russky in Primorye.
