#1. Amendments in legislation enforced in 2017

Dear readers,

Welcome to the pages of our corporate edition “Korpus Prava. Analytics”.

It has already become a tradition to dedicate the first issue of the year to the topics, which would be relevant this year.

In the pages of this edition you will learn about relevant amendments in the law of foreign countries. From 2017 a number of international tax treaties come into force.

This year has brought good news for organizations applying simplified taxation scheme. Legal entities and also private entrepreneurs beginning their professional commercial activity can choose one of the two types of the taxation scheme: common or simplified. Our junior lawyer Roman Moskovskikh tells about the simplified taxation scheme and controlled indebtedness.

In this edition we have tried to introduce you to the new accounting rules, have touched on the issue of financial terrorism, have reviewed measures for the increase of transparency for the prevention of money laundering and have continued searching for an actual
recipient of income.

Please, pay attention to the actively discussed topic “Common Reporting Standard (CRS)”. Our experts have discussed the main issues and disputable aspects in our annual section in Q&A form.

We hope that in this edition you will find only relevant information and will easily implement all your plans in 2017.

See you next time in the pages of “Korpus Prava. Analytics”!

Artem Paleev
Managing Partner
Korpus Prava

CONTENTS

Svetlana Sviridenkova

Deputy Director

Audit Practice

Korpus Prava (Russia)

Audit Under Russian and International Rules

Until last December there had been a threat of monopolization of the audit market by creating a single self-regulatory organization controlled by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. Fortunately, it did not happen. Two self-regulatory organizations retain control over the activities of auditors.

Irina Kocherginskaya, LL. M.

Managing Director

Tax and Legal Practice

Korpus Prava

Q&A: Specific Issues of Common Reporting Standard (CRS)

Automatic information exchange suggests automatic transfer of certain information from the disclosing party of a foreign state to Russian authorities. Then the authorities will work with such information in ordinary course using administration measures and methods set forth in the national law of the Russian Federation.

Igor Chaika

Ex-Managing Director

Audit Practice

Korpus Prava (Russia)

New Accounting Standards

On the website of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation there is a program for the elaboration of new accounting standards for 2016-2018. It stipulates both the development of new federal accounting standards and modification of current accounting provisions.

Irina Otrokhova

Chief Compliance Officer

Corporate Services

Korpus Prava (Cyprus)

Latest Changes in the Legislation of Foreign Countries

In 2006 The International Business Companies Act 2016 (hereinafter – the Act) superseding The International Business Companies Act 1994 was published in the Seychelles. This act has introduced a number of changes, among which there are two main requirements – submission of information about directors and ultimate beneficiary owners – beneficiaries.

Roman Moskovskikh

Lawyer

Law and Tax

Korpus Prava (Russia)

Complicated Life of the “Simplified” and Other Changes in the Tax Legislation

The year 2016 was full of events in the field of geopolitics, which partly shaded the considerable effort that our legislator applied throughout the year in an effort to create a legal framework that meets today's challenges and trends in Russia. Such efforts can be indeed considered significant, because this year the State Duma set a record: 6 165 bills were considered.

Alexey Oskin

Deputy Director

Tax and Legal Practice

Korpus Prava (Russia)

Search for the Actual Income Recipient Continues

The supervisory authorities are paying more attention to the practical application of the concept of the actual income recipient. Everyone has heard the recent cases against such companies as "Northern Kuzbass" (A27-7455/2010), "Naryanmarneftegas" (A40-1164/2011), "OriflameCosmetics" (A40-138879/2014), etc.

Anna Senchenko, LL. M.

Leading Lawyer

Tax and Legal Practice

Korpus Prava (Russia)

Even If You Sit on the Stream Bottom, You Cannot Be a Fish

On July 5, 2016, the European Commission published a document-proposal with amendments to the Fourth EU Directive on the prevention of the use of the financial system for money laundering or terrorism financing purposes, known as 4AML.