ASTRA service receives Tax Project of the Year award from RUIE, PwC

ASTRA, the automated service developed by Interfax for the preparation of documents and notification of related-party transactions, has received a Tax Project of the Year award from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE) and PwC.

ASTRA received the award for Tax Project of the Year in the Tax Automation category at a corporate taxation prize giving ceremony in Moscow on October 11, 2017.

Gazprom Neft won Tax Project of the Year in the Tax Transformation and New Tax Methodologies category.

Awards were also given for Tax Team of the Year (Inter RAO), Active Involvement in the Development of Tax Practice and Legislation (LLC Polyus Management Company and PJSC Moscow Exchange) and the Effective Tax Use of the Shared Service Center (JSC PhosAgro-Cherepovets).

"There is a global tendency towards firmer requirements for companies where related-party transactions are concerned. In Russia, more than 15,000 taxpayers notified the tax authorities about related-party transactions in 2016, and an increasing number of companies is becoming subject to these requirements. That is why it is so important to have simple and accessible solutions to prepare this reporting," said Alexander Shokhin, President of the RUIE.

The Automated System of Transfer Analysis (ASTRA) makes it possible for companies to complete procedures required by Russian tax law: describe the related-party transaction, perform a functional and economic analysis of the deal, and determine whether the transaction‘s cost is market-based. Based on this data, the system automatically compiles the paperwork needed for the Tax Service, including the notification about the related-party transaction. The ASTRA system was developed in compliance with Russian legislation on transfer pricing, taking Russian and international practices and recommendations by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) into consideration.

"Cutting-edge technological solutions are being used more and more widely in the tax sphere today. The ASTRA project‘s task is to digitize the whole process of reporting on inter-related transactions, dispensing with the work of analysts and financial officers, and to provide data of the highest quality and a tried and a tried and tested method. We consider our main goal to be to reduce tax risks for businesses," said Galina Ermilova, the ASTRA project leader.

Interfax is the biggest information group in the CIS and recognized leader on the Russian information market in the B2B segment.

Interfax, founded in 1989, became the first nongovernmental outlet for the latest political and economic news about the Soviet Union. Interfax is the world‘s most frequently cited source for information on Russia and other FSU countries and the most popular newswire service about the Russian financial market.

Interfax develops professional information solutions that help companies operate in the financial and commodity markets and reach investment decisions, manage risk, organize external communications and fulfill regulatory requirements.

Interfax‘s best-known IT services include SPARK (verification of partners and affiliation, risk management), SCAN (media analysis and monitoring), ASTRA (automated service for preparation of documents and notification of related-party transactions), X-Compliance (a solution for the full verification of clients in the sphere of legislation on the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, SPARK MARKETING (analysis of commodity markets, clients, suppliers, procurement monitoring), E-DISCLOSURE.RU (corporate information disclosure system), RU DATA (analytical and reference data for financial market participants) and others.