Assets of Russian business in UAE exceeded 1 trln rubles - FTS

MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) - The United Arab Emirates has recently become the most popular foreign jurisdiction for Russian business, the head of the Federal Tax Service (FTS) Daniil Yegorov said during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

"We have concluded agreements [on avoiding double taxation] with a certain number of countries. New agreements - the Emirates and Malaysia; agreements are underway with Oman and Qatar in order to ensure, on the one hand, the protection of investments, and on the other the exchange of information, so that there is no double taxation, but at the same time there is no situation where there is no taxation anywhere. And we have a leader that has surged ahead - the United Arab Emirates. We are already observing more than a trillion in the assets of our companies in the UAE," Yegorov said.

The activity of Russian business abroad is illustrated by statistics on controlled foreign companies (CFCs), the number of which has increased 16% since 2021, Yegorov said. "At the same time, Cyprus, which was a classic haven for many, many years, fell 30%, while other partner countries, especially those of our Eurasian Union, on the contrary have grown multiple times," he said.

Overall, if in 2021 80% of transactions and 70% of trade turnover were with Western countries, now it is only 20%, and the rest is turnover and settlements with friendly states, Yegorov said.