“No one is in a hurry to bring money to Russia” – Economics – Kommersant

Sergey Aleksashenko, economist, in 1995-1998 – Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation and First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation:

“Formally correct, but in essence a mockery,” wrote Lenin in 1921. I would describe the EU’s decision to recognize Russia as a tax haven with approximately these words. This decision was made by bureaucrats who proceeded from a single criterion: since Russia has stopped the exchange of tax information, then it is a tax haven.

Looking at the tax haven through the eyes of those who use it, the lack of information exchange is an important, but not the only requirement. In addition, property rights should be reliably protected in such a country – it is no coincidence that the vast majority of offshore companies are registered in countries with English law. And banks operating in this country must be able to carry out any money transfers without restrictions. Russia cannot provide one or the other.

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Evgeny Kogan, President of the Moscow Partners Investment Group, Professor at the Higher School of Economics:

– In Russia, the tax system works absolutely clearly within the framework of the FATF and Federal Law-115, including interaction with all countries. Or will we joke that this is a response to a good regime for the self-employed and individual entrepreneurs? But there are such indulgences for small businesses all over the world! So we can rather talk about some form of pressure on our country in addition to sanctions. In addition, this is also a competitive factor: for banks, all payments to/from the Russian Federation will be considered suspicious.

Inside our country, the overwhelming majority would rather pay attention to the fact that the price of native cucumbers is catching up with the cost of imported avocados. Neither show signs of offshore origin.

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Vladislav Zhukovsky, economist, member of the Presidium of the Stolypin Club:

“I don’t see anyone coming to us looking for shelter. Before the NWO, sanctions, isolation, embargo on oil prices, Russia could afford to establish a low tax regime – for example, corporate, profit, when creating jobs. She could create the most favorable conditions so that Russian business would not go to offshore jurisdictions, and Western companies would come to Russia.

No one is in a hurry to bring money to Russia, even at high potential profitability – neither China, nor India, nor even Turkey. Who wants to come with money to a country where, in response to sanctions, they can simply be nationalized or frozen? In 2022, the export of capital in our country amounted to $240–250 billion, which is twice as much as in 2014. With an unstable political and economic situation, NWO, the transfer of power in 2024, Russia for the coming years is a scorched earth.

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Alexey Smirnov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Basalt SPO:

— Sanctions against Russian banks severely limit Russia’s opportunities to become a tax haven. At the same time, Russia has excellent conditions for personal income taxes, but in order to take advantage of this, you need to become a Russian tax resident. If we talk about taxes on business, then in many countries the conditions are better than in Russia. For example, with all our benefits for IT business, the conditions in Georgia are much more favorable.

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Vladimir Popov, President of Favorit-Motors Group of Companies:

“After the SVO, one should not expect that Western business will come to us, although there was a parade for obtaining Russian passports that did not arise out of the blue. But the same Tinkov left the American jurisdiction for a reason – I think taxes played an important role here.

In China, the total tax is lower than ours, and few people want to pay more than at home. But residents of Turkey may well appear in Russia, we have an almost absolute similarity of taxation. The example of Turkish companies operating here shows that they are interested in the Russian tax jurisdiction. But we need the lowest possible tax rate, because there are other jurisdictions, such as neighboring countries, where you can pay less. We need a stable economic and political situation in the Russian market.

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Vadim Zasko, Dean of the Faculty of Taxes, Audit and Business Analysis of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation:

— Russia is a country of civilized tax interaction both with its own residents and with foreign ones. In any case, this is how we position ourselves.

Therefore, I am convinced that Russia is not and will not be a country that provides shelter for unscrupulous capital. And this decision of the European bureaucracy is surprising, since the claims to the Russian tax system revolve around the so-called internal offshores (special administrative regions of Vladivostok and Kaliningrad). But they have complete transparency of tax residency, unlike, for example, domestic offshore US and UK (British Virgin Islands, Guam and the like), which really act as tax havens.

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Mikhail Belyaev, independent financial analyst:

– It is unlikely that Russia will become a tax haven – and not only because it is under sanctions. Firstly, now big business has no motive to run away from where it has funds. Secondly, we do not have the same freedom for business, there are problems with taxes and legislation. The safe haven is the country that is not at risk, and Russia is not in the first row of those where “hot” money will rush in case of danger.

Group “Direct speech”