Putin signs law on offshore assets amnesty
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law allowing Russians to voluntarily declare foreign assets and bank deposits to avoid criminal, administrative and tax liability.
Amnesty will be granted if the violation related to the declared property was made before January 1, 2015, according to the law published on the legal information website.
To receive a right for amnesty, one needs to submit to the tax authorities a special declaration, revealing the assets. The information in the document will be protected by tax secrecy regime and may not be used either for tests or for opening a criminal investigation, the law stipulates. The declaration can be submitted from July 1 to December 31, 2015.
The law on capital amnesty elaborated by Russian Ministry of Finance was approved by Putin on March 25. Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov then explained that the main idea of the bill is so that people who have made any mistakes in their business activities could declare the property and become completely law-abiding citizens.
Andrey Makarov, the head of the budget and taxes committee at the State Duma, said in late May that the new legislation is a chance to “turn the offshore page of the economy and start living from scratch not thinking that either racketeers or law enforcement will come after you.”
Putin proposed the capital amnesty law on December 4, 2014.
