Doing business in Russia will become easier: the Ministry of Economic Development, with the participation of entrepreneurs, has prepared a set of measures within the framework of the Transformation of Business Climate Plan (TBC).

This project is not temporary: every six months the list will be updated with new initiatives. Already the first package of measures included proposals in 13 areas (taxes, control and supervisory activities, customs administration, human capital, labor productivity, etc.) and more than 130 measures.

White list

Initiatives that did not cause controversy fell into the “white list”. These include, for example, such changes as:

1. Accountants will not have to duplicate financial statements to Rosstat: from January 1, 2020, reporting will be sent only to the tax service and only in electronic form.
2. The tax service should have an online service to check the reason for the refusal to register a company and a service warning entrepreneurs about attempts by fraudsters to change company data.
3. It is proposed to extend the tax free system to all regions of Russia.
4. It is assumed that one application for connection to all communications (electricity, gas, heating and water) will be submitted. Now you need to contact 4 different offices for this.
5. Entrepreneurs will be able to pay a company’s debts after the liquidation of a legal entity – it will be easier to create a new company (now there are restrictions on establishing a new company if the former legal entity is being closed with debts).
6. In the field of education, it is proposed to take into account the views of business in the accreditation of educational programs. Also, entrepreneurs want to be allowed to engage in educational activities.
7. It is proposed to transfer border control to electronic document flow (including during interaction within the EAEU). It is expected that this will reduce the time and cost of customs procedures by almost half.
8. Control and supervisory activities will be more transparent: the questions on the checklists should become more specific and objective, and the number of mandatory requirements themselves will decrease.

List of disagreements

This list includes items on which the business community and officials could not agree ― these proposals await further discussion. For example, the disagreements evoked the following suggestions:

1. Add the possibility of registering a company at the address of another legal entity. For example, a new company may be registered at the address of a firm that provides legal or accounting services, and this option is not entirely suitable for law enforcement agencies. In addition, the issue of sending correspondence to an email address, rather than a postal address, is not fully resolved.
2. Increase the period after which new tax reporting forms will be valid. Business asks to increase the period from 1 to 3 months.
3. Simplify the procedure for being held administratively liable for violations of customs rules, and tie the punishment itself to the degree of economic danger and public damage.
4. Limit the authority of the customs service to monitor compliance with technical regulations.
5. Introduce comprehensive control over imported goods and a system of integrated customs and tax control with the transfer of VAT after release as part of tax reporting.

Sources: RBC, Kommersant