On Thursday, October 10, the business event “TC Industry Portfolio” organized by Tax Compliance took place in the Moscow Cinema on Okhotny Ryad. The leading lawyers of the company and representatives of big business met at the famous venue in the center of the capital. 

Tax law experts and top managers of companies from key industries identified the main tax risks for business and presented recommendations on how to minimize them. In the format of live communication the participants of the meeting discussed current tax changes and their impact on specific industries. 

It is noteworthy that the name of the business event - “TC Industry Portfolio” - is identical to the name of the service recently launched. - is identical to the name of the service recently launched by Tax Compliance. One of the central events of the event was its presentation. 

Speakers from Tax Compliance were leading lawyers of the company: 

• Managing Partner Mikhail Begunov;
• Partner, attorney-at-law Andrey Solomiany;
• Alexander Dmitriev, head of criminal defense of business, attorney-at-law;
• Head of Tax Practice Alexey Stanchin;
• Head of Tax Practice Ivan Tsvetkov;
• senior tax consultant Fyodor Petrik;
• tax consultant Ekaterina Kopylova;
• tax consultant Anastasia Arzhanova;
• tax consultant Sergey Ivanov. 

Guests of the event from the business community were:

• Oleg Grishunin, Director for Legal and Corporate Affairs of BEL Development Group;
• Pavel Andreev, Director of Taxation, Integra Group of Companies;
• Elena Kucheryavaya, Legal Director of SPLAT Global;
• Maria Andreeva, First Deputy General Director of Pharm-Sintez JSC. 

The extensive program of the meeting was divided into three sessions, during which the speakers made speeches and interacted with each other in an informal atmosphere. 

The participants of the event discussed tax risks for the following industries: 

• Real Estate and Construction;
• transportation industry;
• manufacturing;
• natural resources and energy;
• retail;
• pharmaceuticals and healthcare;
• IT-industry. 

During the sessions, the participants held in-depth and productive discussions, touching upon key issues of industry-specific tax risks, taking into account the legal nuances of each area. 

What are the risks for developers and contractors?

Ivan Tsvetkov, head of Tax Compliance practice, said that at each stage of any construction project, a whole range of tax risks arise in the accounting of all its actors, including developers and contractors. 

“Conditionally, they can be divided into general (Art. 54. 1 and Art. 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation) and accounting, in which not the expenses themselves, but the speed or the order of their accounting will be challenged. At the same time, it is impossible to identify complex and accounting risks without having information about them and without knowing where to look to find them. By themselves, such risks individually do not give significant figures of additional charges, but in the absence of proper tax audit can accumulate like a snowball and form a large arrears on the results of field tax audit”, - explained Ivan Tsvetkov. 

Tightening of tax control

Sergey Ivanov, Tax Compliance tax consultant, drew attention to the tightening of control over cross-border payments. 

“We see in our practice how tax control is tightened with regard to cross-border payments. Even if you are doing well, you keep the “status quo” and do not change your business model, unfortunately, this does not mean that the tax authority will not be interested in your business, ” the expert warned. 

He emphasized that the current international environment creates tax risks regardless of the actions or inaction of companies. 

Pavel Andreev, Director of Taxation of Integra Group of Companies, shared the specifics of obtaining installment payments of taxes and fees, offering practical recommendations for businesses.

Risks of carriers and logistics companies

As part of the discussion on the transportation industry, Tax Compliance tax consultant Ekaterina Kopylova spoke about the risks of carriers and logistics companies. 

She noted that the emergence of tax risks in the activities of transportation companies can be associated not only with subjective errors and imperfections of internal compliance systems, but also with objective factors: ambiguity of tax regulation, probbudget thinking of inspectors and changes in legislation. 

In addition, significant risks are associated with payments to foreign income recipients, including freight forwarders and carriers. 

“In some cases, it is recommended to prepare defense files in advance to substantiate the legitimacy of the taxpayers position. In current operations, it is also important to analyze individual transactions and strictly monitor compliance with accounting procedures. Sometimes the best solution may be to seek clarification or initiate changes at the legislative level, ” Ekaterina Kopylova emphasized. 

Risks of manufacturers and energy producers

As part of the discussion on risks in the spheres of production, natural resources and energy, Fyodor Petrik, Senior Tax Consultant at Tax Compliance, spoke about how to apply investment tax incentives with minimal risks, as well as how to pass excise tax audit for companies engaged in operations with excisable fuels. 

Much attention was paid to changes in the rules of TCO, which are becoming relevant not only for large, but also for medium-sized businesses. 

New approaches in the audit of merchandizing services

Anastasia Arzhanova, Tax Compliance tax consultant, told about new approaches of tax authorities when checking merchandizing services. 

It is noteworthy that lately the auditors have started to pay special attention to the companys economic interest in purchasing merchandising services, as well as to impose higher requirements to the reporting documents. 

Mikhail Begunov, Managing Partner of Tax Compliance, noted the change of emphasis in the audit of relationships with outstaffing companies. If earlier tax authorities tried to prove the existence of labor relations between the leased personnel and the taxpayer, now they focus on recognizing outstaffers as “technical” companies. As a result, instead of charging additional “salary” taxes, tax inspectors started charging additional VAT. 

Property issues and regional specifics

Partner of Tax Compliance, attorney Andrey Solomyanny analyzed in detail the problem of qualification of movable and immovable property. 

He noted that despite the attempts of the Supreme Court to form a uniform practice, including the recent case of Arkaim LLC (№ A73-513/2023), no clear criteria have been developed yet. The expert emphasized the need to take into account regional specifics. 

“For the majority of regions the tax on property of organizations is one of the main sources of own revenues, which is the reason for negative court practice on the issue of qualification of property as movable or immovable in certain regions”, - the lawyer stressed.