The list of permitted currency transactions, as well as cases of non-expatriation of currency, will be expanded.

Branches will be able to receive money

Thus, money received from non-residents can be credited to the accounts of representative offices or branches of Russian organizations in foreign banks:

• when a branch returns goods or does not receive paid services from a non-resident, which are necessary for activities other than transactions in the framework of foreign economic activity;
• funds returned by a non-resident previously deposited by the branch as a Deposit under the premises lease agreement;
• when selling vehicles and (or) property, except for transactions within the framework of foreign economic activity;
• insurance payments from non-resident insurers.

Currently, the possibility of receiving such amounts directly is not established — you need to get the money to the organization’s account in an authorized Bank. In lots of countries, it is mandatory to transfer funds to the counterparty’s account with whom the contract is concluded, that is, to the account of a representative office (branch) in a Bank located outside the Russian Federation.

Report on the movement of financial assets

Currently, residents (with some exceptions) must report to the Tax Authorities on the flow of funds on foreign accounts. At the same time, accounts opened since the beginning of the year are taken into account by banks and other financial organizations.

A new law has introduced another clarification: it will be necessary to report not only on the money movement, but also on other financial assets. The reporting rules for crediting, debiting, and balances of other financial assets will be applied from the beginning of 2021.

«Good countries»

What are they? So far, they have established an exchange of financial information with the Russian Federation under a Multilateral Agreement dated October 29, 2014, or another international agreement of the Russian Federation. To be short, they are the countries (territories) with which there is an automatic exchange.

And finally, the list of these countries has been given an understandable status. The fact is that the list of the Federal Tax Service is compiled once a year. At the same time, firstly, the wording in the «currency» law changes regularly, and secondly, an agreement with a country can be reached at the beginning or middle of the year. Then the country is exchanging financial information, but is not yet included in the list of the Federal Tax Service. Until now, the «currency» law mentions the exchanging countries, but in practice, the Federal Tax Service (as a currency control body) operates exclusively with its own lists. And it turns out an inconsistency — for example, someone may accidentally be illegally fined.

Now, when the new law is signed and comes into force, these possible illegal fines will become legal. The fact is that it will be stipulated that the exchange countries mentioned in the «currency» law are those that are included in the list of the Federal Tax Service. In other words, as long as the country with which the agreement is concluded is not included in the list, you cannot use the privileges set for accounts in such countries.

Recall that several laws last year allowed individuals to transfer funds from non-residents to foreign accounts opened in the EEU countries or in the mentioned «good countries». In addition, individuals should not report to the Russian Tax Authorities on the movement of funds on the account (deposit) in the same countries, if the turnover for the year does not exceed the equivalent of 600 thousand rubles.

Individual deposits

The rules on crediting money, bypassing the authorized Bank, are also adjusted in the case of construction of an object by a resident abroad, for offsets when providing services related to fishing abroad, and-offsets of counterclaims with non-residents for international transportation and related services.