The bill formalizes the concept of «business splitting» and develops an amnesty procedure for companies. TC tax consultant Ekaterina Kopylova commented on the main aspects of the provisions in an article by RBC.

The essence of the amnesty is stated by the agency as follows: if a business «voluntarily» refuses to split its business in the tax periods of 2025 and 2026, the obligation to pay taxes and penalties for the previous periods of 2022-2024 under Articles 119 (failure to submit a tax return), 120 (gross violation of the rules of accounting for income and expenses) and 122 (failure to pay or incomplete payment of tax amounts) of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation may be terminated.

The first thing that draws attention is the definition of the term «Business Crushing». It is noteworthy that for a long time before the idea of amnesty on splitting, the tax service in its explanations, as well as representatives of other authorities, repeatedly stated the impossibility of legislative enshrinement of this concept. 

But as we see, for the purposes of amnesty, the authors of the draft managed to prepare a fairly general formulation. The term is disclosed through the purpose «aimed solely or mainly at understatement of taxes through the application of special regimes» and key (essence) features such as «single activity», «formally independent persons» and «control by the same persons».

It can be assumed that such a definition is ad hoc and will apply specifically to the amnesty, and will not extend to future split disputes. Although such a risk remains.

At the same time, the draft law still does not provide an answer to the question of who will assess the compliance of a particular case with the specified concept of «business splitting». If only voluntary recognition of one's activity as a split business is assumed, the broad wording will rather facilitate this process. But, if tax inspectors will encourage taxpayers to recognize themselves as a split, focusing on this wording, which is more likely in our opinion, then there is a risk that many taxpayers will fall into this circle not quite fairly, in isolation from the practice formed to date. And then again will have to prove to the tax authority the existence of a «business purpose» and the absence of a «single control center».

The key point, of course, is the disclosure of the very content of the amnesty, exemption from taxes, penalties and fines for periods up to 2025, provided that taxes are calculated and paid taking into account the consolidation of indicators of the entire group. At the same time, there is no direct mention of the transition to the general system of taxation, and it is not quite clear how it will work, and what is the point of remaining on the simplified taxation system while paying taxes under the general system?