The President of the Russian Federation has signed a Law changing the procedure for accreditation of branches and representative offices of foreign companies.
According to the text of the law, the following provisions were affected by the changes:
- Reduction of the terms of accreditation of foreign branches and representative offices from 25 to 15 working days from the date of submission of the relevant documents together with the statement for accreditation. The exception is representatives of airlines. For them, the term remained the same.
- Payment of the state duty in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation on taxes and levies. Currently, its amount is 120,000 rubles.
- Introduction of the procedure for suspending accreditation and making changes to the information contained in the state register of accredited branches and representative offices of foreign legal entities (the Register). The reason for the suspension of the procedure is the failure to submit the necessary documents or their non-compliance with the approved requirements.
The term of termination of accreditation – until the reasons, that gave rise to the suspension of accreditation or making changes to the information contained in the Register, are eliminated, but not for more than 15 working days.
- Introduction of additional grounds for refusal of accreditation, namely:
- failure to eliminate the identified violations within the period specified in the decision on suspension;
- appointment by the head of a branch or representative office of a person with respect to whom a decision was previously made to disqualify him / her;
- the presence of a foreign legal entity in arrears to the budget system of the Russian Federation for penalties and fines in the amount of more than 3,000 rubles.
- Establishment of the possibility of appeal in the pre-trial (out-of-court) order of the refusal of accreditation of foreign branches and representative offices.
The adopted law comes into force starting from August 24, 2021.
Please be reminded that to register a representative office or branch of a foreign legal entity, it is necessary to:
- draw up a regulation on a branch or representative office in any form;
- prepare the necessary documents for the registration of a foreign company;
- fill in the application in the form No. 15AFP in Russian.
It is necessary to submit the documents to the Interdistrict Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service of Russia No. 47 in Moscow. The deadline for their submission is not later than 12 months after the decision to establish a branch or representative office is made.
The term for obtaining a certificate of entry in the Register is not later than 30 days from the date of submission of documents in the Interdistrict Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service of Russia No. 47.
In the matters of the registration of branches and representative offices of foreign companies, please contact the experts of Acsour legal department.
