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Russia's lower parliament house passes capital legalization law

MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/. The State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, passed the capital legalization law introduced by the Russian government in pursuance of the presidential message to the parliament of December 4, 2014.

According to the text of the draft law for the second reading, legalization of overseas capitals will be implemented through submission of a property and deposits declaration. It will be possible to declare the property (real estate, transportation means, securities, equity interests and capital units in charter (share) capitals of Russian and foreign companies), accounts and deposits with banks and controlled foreign companies owned by the declarer. Furthermore, individuals can formalize the ownership title to property earlier transferred to nominees. The declaration should be submitted to the tax authority. It will be possible to submit the declaration from July 1 to December 31, 2015.

The document contains an exhaustive list of articles in the Russian Criminal Code with the one-time release from liability guaranteed for declarers. They will be exempted from criminal liability under articles covering evasion of repatriation of funds in foreign or Russian currency, evasion of customs duty payment, evasion of individual or corporate taxes and (or) charges payment, failure to discharge tax agent’s obligations, concealment of funds or property, illegal establishment (reorganization) of a legal entity and illegal use of documents for establishment (reorganization) of a legal entity. The above list was agreed with the management of the international Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering.

The declaration will be presented to the tax authorities and kept confidential. The content of such a declaration cannot be transferred to government agencies and cannot be the basis to open a criminal case or serve as evidence in the criminal case.

The draft law was expected to be passed in three readings and signed by the Russian president by June 15, Russia’s Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov said earlier.