Blog

Remote notarial services

On July 15, 2019 the Russian Government introduced a draft law that will change the Law on notaries. Due to this draft law, companies and individuals will be able to receive some notarial services remotely, in electronic form. The list of such services includes: A certification of documents translation; Securing…

Aug, 30 2019
Taxation of digital assets

Lawyers start to develop the system of taxation of digital assets. The preparation of this system is going to be realized before the adoption of a special law in order to avoid problems in practice when applying the General rules of taxation on the matter of virtual assets. The meeting…

Aug, 20 2019
VALEN Partner office in Munich

In June 2019 Valen opened partner office in Munich, thereby strengthening the company’s presence in Germany. Similarly to the head office in Moscow, partner office will be specialized on the practices of corporate, civil and agreement law, as well as provide services related to tax consulting. New office address –…

Jul, 03 2019
New type of Russian visa for foreigners

President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has ordered introduction of a universal single-entry e-visa for foreigners arriving in Russia from 1 January 2021. E-visas will be single-entry and short-term, for up to 16 days. In addition, this visa will be universal: its holder will be able to enter the…

Jun, 25 2019
Shares in intellectual property

Current Russian Civil Code states that exclusive intellectual property right may belong to one person or to several persons jointly. It means that if intellectual property has several proprietors, they are entitled to dispose of it only in a joint tenancy mode, i.e. it is necessary to obtain consent of…

Jun, 07 2019
«Google tax» payment will be easier

New rules for paying “Google tax” – VAT that is paid by foreign companies which provide electronic services to Russian customers – have entered into force in Russia since January 1, 2019. Previously this tax was paid by the customers instead of foreign companies-sellers.  Now, according to the new rules,…

Apr, 17 2019
Russian analogue to SWIFT: access for foreign companies

System of financial messages transfer (SFMT), Russian analogue to SWIFT, is in operation since late 2014. Almost 400 companies have been connected to it as at April 2019. According to current legislation, only Russian banks and their clients as well as foreign credit institutions and international organizations could be SFMT-members…

Apr, 11 2019
Digital law in Russia

When digital financial assets appeared in Russia, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance defined them as highly risky money surrogate without legal protection and proposed to ban them in Russia. However, such position did not significantly affect the development of digital assets in Russia, and this development was…

Apr, 02 2019
Migration inspection – check list

Ministry of internal affairs has approved form of check lists for migration inspections. These check lists will conduct scheduled inspections of companies with foreign employees. Authorized bodies will first check following issues:

Mar, 12 2019
Amnesty of capital: new rules

Ministry of Finance will not extend Amnesty of capitals after March 01, 2019 on previous conditions. According to new rules the guarantees will be provided for one more year to investors who transfer their assets to special administrative districts in Russia. As the Deputy Minister of Finance explained, such investors…

Feb, 19 2019
VAT: foreign companies’ registration

Due to new obligation for e-services providers to get registered in Tax authorities, a lot of companies asked us for support on this matter. VALEN law firm has successfully registered a lot of clients as VAT-payers for providing e-services. Since January 01, 2019 foreign companies providing e-services for companies and…

Feb, 12 2019
Entrepreneurs will be relieved from criminal liability

President Vladimir Putin suggested to exempt perpetrators of crimes from criminal liability if they fully compensate material losses to the victim. This innovation will affect following crimes: credit and insurance fraud or fraud using electronic payment systems; fraud in business activity; copyright abuse; patent infringement and others. Also suggested to…

Dec, 18 2018
Is activity out of OKVED code a violation?

Russian Classifier of Economic Activities (OKVED) is a list of the types of economic activity under certain codes. Companies-taxpayers choose their own types of activity and provide information about their codes (main and additional) to register authorities. According to the new letter of The Federal Tax Service, assigning the code…

Nov, 14 2018
Family business – new for Russian law

Minister of Economic Development of Russia announced that the term “family business” may appear in Russian legislation. It will be the next step of small business development in Russia, which will give some entrepreneurs an opportunity to make their business activity legal. At the first stage of reform, only entrepreneurs,…

Nov, 06 2018
VALEN moves to Moscow city

Since November 9th VALEN moves to Moscow City. Our new office location is Presnenskaya Naberezhnaya 6, bld. 2, Imperia Tower, 8th floor. We are also pleased to announce the launch of our new website:  https://valen-legal.com

Oct, 29 2018
How to calculate «Google Tax»

So called «Google Tax» has been being in force in Russia since 2017.  It was adopted to protect Russian IT companies on the e-services market. This tax oblige such corporations as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and others to pay VAT if they provide following e-services in Russia: advertise distribution on…

Oct, 09 2018