Difficulties leaving foreign legal entity registries reported by 12 SAR residents - Federal Tax Service

MOSCOW. June 24 (Interfax) - Twelve residents of special administrative regions (SAR) have encountered difficulties leaving foreign legal entity registries, Deputy Head of the International Taxation Department of the Federal Tax Service Anastasia Smotritskaya said on Monday.

"We often hear that companies say that they cannot remove themselves from a foreign registry. However, our data show that, out of over 400 companies currently registered [in a SAR], there are only twelve of these companies," Smotritskaya said in the Federation Council at a meeting entitled On Additional measures to Deoffshorize the Economy. She did not name the companies.

As a general rule, after "moving" to an SAR, companies must confirm their withdrawal from the registry of legal entities in the country of their previous registration within two years. However, business representatives and officials have repeatedly stated that not all organizations can fulfill this requirement due to a refusal to cooperate on the part of foreign government agencies, foreign notaries, lawyers, etc.

A law was passed in December 2023 that allowed SAR residents to repeatedly extend the period of "separation" from their previous jurisdiction via a government commission if they were held up "unreasonably or for reasons beyond their control" by foreign officials who refused their request.

The total number of SAR residents in Russia has reached 418. Tax payments to the Russian budget from these companies for 2023 totaled 24.85 billion rubles, First Deputy Minister of Economic Development Ilya Torosov reported in early June.