The State Duma submitted a bill to mitigate liability for a number of economic crimes
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The government has submitted to the State Duma a draft law on the mitigation of criminal liability for a number of economic crimes, should from the electronic database of the lower house of parliament. The document says that we are talking about reducing the statute of limitations for several economic articles, as well as closing the criminal case when paying fines, arrears and penalties in cases of tax evasion.
Yesterday, February 21, President Vladimir Putin, in his address to the Federal Assembly, said that the state should control what is happening in the business environment, but “there is no need to go too far either,” since freedom of enterprise is an essential element of economic sovereignty: “I think in this regard right to return to the issue of revising a number of norms of criminal law in terms of the so-called economic offenses.
But the bill has been in the making for a long time. It was introduced in pursuance of the instructions of the President, which he gave following the results of meetings with members of Delovaya Rossiya on February 3, 2022, specified in the explanatory note to the document.
The explanatory note notes that, given the legislative structure of Article 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Exemption from criminal liability due to the expiration of the statute of limitations), in order to fulfill the presidential order, it is necessary to reduce the maximum sentences provided for by a number of articles of the Criminal Code. In particular, we are talking about Art. 199 (tax evasion), Art. 199.1 (failure to fulfill the duties of a tax agent), the authors of the bill propose to reduce the maximum term of imprisonment for them from 6 to 5 years.
The maximum term under Art. 199.2 (concealment of funds or property of an organization or individual entrepreneur) is proposed to be reduced from 7 to 5 years, and under Art. 199.4 (avoidance of payment of insurance premiums) – from 4 to 3 years. Reducing the maximum terms will lead to a reduction in the statute of limitations for criminal liability.
In addition, the draft law contains a provision according to which a criminal case on tax evasion cannot be initiated (and already filed must be terminated) in case of full payment of arrears, penalties and fines.
“The project was developed in order to reduce the negative consequences for the Russian economy in modern conditions and is aimed at liberalizing criminal liability for a number of crimes related to tax evasion and other obligatory payments,” the explanatory note to the document says.
The proposed amendments will minimize the negative consequences for persons prosecuted: the interests of the state will be observed and at the same time the businessman will be able to maintain his reputation without initiating a case, Anatoly Loginov, partner of BGP Litigation, believes. “There is hope that these amendments will eradicate the vicious practice of bringing to justice a person who has already paid off the damage in order to meet the “stick indicators,” Loginov says.
Putin instructed the government to develop the relevant amendments as early as April 2022. The deadline for implementation was specified as June 1, 2022. As wrote Earlier, the Kommersant newspaper, the development of the amendments was delayed due to disagreements between the Ministry of Justice on the one hand and the Ministry of Finance and the Investigative Committee of Russia on the other hand.
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