Foreign online stores that do not pay taxes in the Russian Federation want to block

The Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Industry and Trade are currently negotiating a new bill. It provides for blocking foreign online stores if they refuse to pay VAT of 15.25% to the Russian budget when selling goods to Russian users. Blocking threatens many large foreign trading platforms, such as eBay.



The functions of blocking foreign online stores are assigned to the Federal Tax Service. That is, the tax authorities will transfer to Roskomnadzor a list of sites of stores, access to which should be blocked from the territory of the Russian Federation.



Sellers and shops are required to register with the Federal Tax Service if their turnover in Russia reaches 2 million rubles. per quarter ($ 34,872 at the current rate). This is not too large a sum, so all large stores are required to register in the Russian tax.



Experts believe that not every marketplace agrees to this procedure. It is easier for some to abandon the Russian market: “If we talk about eBay, then it will simply tick off that it does not deliver goods to our country - and forget about it,” said Ilya Kretov, the general director of eBay in Russia.



From the point of view of state bodies, the initiative makes perfect sense. For example, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade in this way stimulate import substitution, support domestic light industry, the production of domestic electronics, etc.



The Ministry of Finance can report on the increase in tax collection - from those stores that can still pay VAT in Russia, raising prices specifically for Russians. "In the absence of budget expenditures, the estimated increase in revenue when implementing this bill in accordance with the analysis of the dynamics of the share of the Internet market of foreign organizations and tracking transactions is estimated at about 64 billion rubles for the first year," the explanatory note to the bill says. According to the calculations of officials, in four years the amount may increase to 153 billion rubles. annually.



Shops from the pocket of buyers will pay VAT, and buyers themselves will also pay a fee for the goods purchased. Recently, Russian Post offered to lower the limit for duty-free import of online purchases to € 50 . Now this limit is different in different countries of the EEU: in Belarus it is € 22 (as in the European Union), in Kazakhstan - € 500, in Russia - € 1000. The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation laid down in the draft budget for 2018–2020 a reduction in the monthly limit of duty-free imports to € 20, but the final decision has not yet been made.



Of course, online stores at the request of buyers often underestimate the cost of goods, but customs officers have already learned how to track it and determine the real price.



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