Russia may stop automatic tax data exchange with Britain, dependencies: media
MOSCOW, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) — The Russian Federal Tax Service (FTS) may stop the automatic exchange of financial information with Britain and its dependencies — the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey, TASS news agency reported Friday, quoting an FTS draft order.
According to the news report, the draft order approves an updated list of jurisdictions that declared their readiness to exchange financial information with Russia, which excludes Britain and its territories while proposing to include Panama and Israel.
Russia since 2018 has been automatically exchanging information with other countries on accounts of non-residents on the principle of reciprocity.
The Russian RBC media group reported in March that British tax service HM Revenue & Customs had excluded Russia from the list of countries with which it exchanged financial information automatically.
However, the tax authorities of Russia and Britain continued to exchange information on accounts under the double taxation treaty and other international treaties upon request, according to TASS.
In accordance with a law signed in August, from 2020, all restrictions on foreign accounts for Russian residents will be cancelled, provided the account is opened in one of the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Financial Action Task Force for Money Laundering, the RBC reported Thursday.
The law opens free transfer of funds from non-residents to the foreign bank accounts of Russians, and exempts Russians who spend more than half a year in Russia from the obligation to submit annual reports about such transfers to the tax authorities.
According to the RBC, after Britain refused to exchange data automatically, Russians with accounts there will continue to be required to submit annual reports to the Russian tax authorities.
They will also be unable to put revenues from the sale of real estate or to receive consumer loans, earnings or income from the sale of securities in those accounts, it added.
