Foreign accounts come under suspicion – Kommersant FM

The Tax Service has begun to impose fines for receiving income into foreign accounts. She now considers it a currency violation. Problems arose with a Russian resident who was renting out commercial real estate in Germany, Vedomosti writes. The money for this was transferred to his foreign account. The Federal Tax Service considered the citizen an entrepreneur and his foreign currency earnings illegal, since the payments did not come to a Russian bank. How justified are the tax authorities’ claims? Vladislav Viktorov talks about this.

As Kommersant FM’s interlocutors say, the owner of six commercial real estate properties in Germany was let down by his honesty. Perhaps, if he himself had not disclosed the information that he received funds for their delivery to a foreign account, the inspectors would not have known about it. However, the victim’s lawyers note that the disclosure of information occurred at the request of the Federal Tax Service itself, which has recently been very interested in citizens with a residence permit or a second passport.

The man did not hide this and reported about foreign accounts, and as an individual. But the inspectors considered that the rental payments he receives are more similar to entrepreneurial activity, and therefore he should answer as a legal entity.

BKHK law firm partner Lyubov Kochenkova, who represents the interests of the fined person, disagrees with this: “Previously, tax authorities selectively requested statements of transactions on foreign accounts, and not so en masse. And my principal has provided this information since 2019.

But transactions on lease payments did not raise questions from tax authorities until recently. This is a controversial position. The law on currency regulation itself is quite imperfect, and if you choose the contextual meaning of the norm, then it can be applied this way, or it can be applied in another way.”

The fact that the decision of the Federal Tax Service looks controversial is said by several lawyers interviewed by Kommersant FM. Formally, the man had to bear responsibility as an individual. However, the tax authorities brought him to justice under the article on violation of currency legislation, according to which the activities of individual entrepreneurs and individuals are not differentiated, but there is also no indication that a citizen should be held accountable for violating the rules as a legal entity.

If a Russian systematically makes a profit even under a lease agreement, then the tax authorities may already consider this a business activity. As a result, the man was fined 30% of the total amount of the transactions.

The Federal Tax Service had a formal reason to make a claim, says Yulia Zavyalova, head of tax practice at FTL Advisers: “The service considered that this business activity should be formalized in a different way as reporting to the tax authority, and rules that are not provided for individuals must also be observed. namely for entrepreneurs.

The position of the Federal Tax Service is controversial, because the legislation on currency regulation and currency control is imperfect today. But from the point of view of monitoring the activities of a Russian citizen, it is legal.”

Now lawyers believe that if the court sides with the tax authorities, then all owners of foreign real estate who receive rental payments to a foreign account will be at risk. Theoretically, this could also apply to those who receive income from securities abroad. Although the director of the Moscow office of Tax Global Consulting, Eduard Savulyak, believes that the Federal Tax Service is right, simply because the man’s actions are really similar to entrepreneurial activity:

“An ordinary citizen can rent out one of his apartments. But if he rents out six real estate properties, then this no longer amounts to the activity of an individual. If, for example, your neighbor bought six apartments on the site and is renting them out, is this entrepreneurial activity or not? Tax authorities will answer this question positively.

It may be that a person did not intend to violate anything, but due to the fact that he did not follow changes in the currency legislation of the Russian Federation, this happened. “We now have the ability to transfer money to the accounts of unfriendly states for a very narrow number of reasons.”

Experts note that the Federal Tax Service continues to exchange information with foreign countries, including unfriendly ones. True, now information comes with a delay. And if a citizen himself has already reported an account to the tax authorities, then it will simply need more time to record suspicious transactions.

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Ivan Koryakin