A Review of Taxation Regulatory Documents Issued in the Period of January-February 2014

New trends in Russia's fiscal legislation emerged and developed in the period under review, January thru February 2014. First of all, having adopted the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Russia is facing the challenge of approximating the existing schemes for the determination of tax bases provided for by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation to the rules for the calculation of revenues and expenditures provided for by the IFRS. There is a second factor which may have an effect on reforming the fiscal framework, i.e. the amendments to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation which were initiated by previous Russia's President D. A. Medvedev. The effect of the amendments to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation on fiscal relations (under a draft law "On Making Amendments to the Federal Law On Limited Liability Companies as Related to the Procedure for Distribution of Profits" which is being under discussion until 21.02.2014) needs extra studying. The new Common Reporting Standard (CRS) commissioned by G20 and prepared by the OECD is going to be an important measure to prevent tax evasion, i.e. instead of providing data by request of tax authorities, it will be provided automatically when certain criteria are met (for example, when the balance of an account has reached $250,000, etc.)