Experts say that there are fewer tax disputes, but the proportion of decisions in favour of the taxpayers remains practically the same

The VI All-Russian Tax Congress, organized by Infor-Media, concluded its work on June 1st in Moscow. Representatives of the judiciary and executive powers, advocates, lawyers of the leading Russian and international law firms, in-house lawyers of large companies took part in the event. Advocate Alexey Popov, Partner of the Law Firm "YUST", represented the Firm.

The program of the two-day event was intense, and enabled its participants to learn and discuss:

• The latest trends of development of tax legislation and international tax planning;
• New rules of regulation of transfer pricing;
• Best practices of tax risks management.

Special attention was given to the current court practice of tax disputes settlement. Participants of the Congress together with the leading tax law specialists analyzed the cases of “Samarsky Dom Pechati (Samara Publishing House)” OJSC (№ А55-5418/2010), “Leroy Merlin Vostok” LLC (№ А40-56521/10-35-297), MTS OJSC (№ А40-52351/09-126-304), “Kaspersky Laboratory” CJSC (№ А40-167992/09-13-1421) and other cases. A.Popov, Partner of the Firm, spoke on the most crucial moments of said cases and consequences of the decisions on those taken by the SCA of Russia.

The Tax Congress also discussed the theme of precedent law in Russia. Svetlana Petrova, Judge of the SCA of Russia, called the participants’ attention to the fact that earlier precedents were mentioned in a disguised manner, and now they may be discussed and split into court precedents with legal norm and construction precedents. She is of the opinion that the former type of precedents will find its place in the Russian legal system in the future, since it requires a certain approach, meticulous study and research. The latter kind is already showing the ways and procedure of application, thanks to which a uniform court practice is formed. S.Petrova explained that construction precedents are obligatory for application by court instances as well as by other authorities, but only in cases with similar facts and circumstances.

The speakers also pointed out that the courts have been dealing with fewer tax disputes, even if the proportion of decisions in favour of the taxpayers remains practically the same. The latest legal novels of extrajudicial settlement of tax disputes, the growing level of legal competence of the tax authorities’ employees, explanations of the higher court instances on the most disputed moments were cited as the causes for that.

For more detail on the event’s program and participants see here.