Vimpelcom challenges the validity of a tax audit on controlled transactions. Previously, the tax authority charged the organization additional profit tax due to the deviation of prices in a controlled transaction from the market level. Senior Tax Consultant Fyodor Petrik noted the importance of this dispute for business in a Kommersant article. 

The company challenged the additional tax assessment on procedural grounds, as the 2-year statute of limitations for the audit on the initial notice of controlled transactions had expired, and the tax authority calculated the statute of limitations on the revised notice, which was filed a year later.

The organization was only able to obtain a ruling in its favor in the Constitutional Court. The tax authority continued to defend its own position both in lawmaking and in the reconsideration of this dispute in the court of first instance. Within the framework of lawmaking, the statute of limitations for tax audits of controlled transactions was increased to three years in order to avoid discrepancies.

On reconsideration, the tax authority based its position on an interpretation of the Constitutional Court's ruling in its favor, since it contains an indication of certain grounds for calculating the limitation period for an audit on a revised notification. As a result, the court of first instance agreed with the amended position of the Federal Tax Service. In particular, the tax authority points out that the revised notification provided information on a new transaction, which is essential for analyzing the contested transaction, for which no new information was provided.

The position of the tax authority may be further challenged by the company in the court of appeal, and it is not easy to predict the outcome, since the company's position is correctly argued, which was previously confirmed by the CC. However, given the substantial amount of additional charges, we should expect active defense of the FTS position.