A conference titled Tax Policy and Tax Disputes 2017-2018 was held in Moscow on February 15, 2018. Valentin Moiseev, AGP partner and head of Tax practice, spoke at the event.
The conference opened with a panel discussion on New and Overlooked Old Practices in International Tax Planning. Development of Deoffshorization in Russia and Abroad, where Valentin spoke on look-through taxation approach in relation to payment of dividends outside Russia.
As Valentin reported, “the look-through approach provided for by the Russian Tax Code allows a perfectly legitimate reduction of overall tax burden on payments made through a complicated system of foreign jurisdictions, although it requires fulfillment of several conditions. In particular, it is necessary to have all companies’ waiver of beneficial ownership of income, to be able to produce evidence of tax residency of the initial and the ultimate recipients of income and copies of documents showing the succession chain of ownership. Otherwise, one would face the risk that tax authorities might apply the maximum withholding tax rate.”
Specifics of asserting eligibility for look-through approach as well as non-standard scenarios that may be faced by taxpayers claiming such eligibility were the subject matter of Valentin’s presentation and the discussion of the sidelines of the conference.
