Business news

3 Oct 2022

Belarus, Russia sign agreement on indirect taxation principles

MOSCOW, 3 October (BelTA) – A Belarusian-Russian agreement on general principles of collecting indirect taxes – the value-added tax (VAT) and excise duties was signed in Moscow on 3 October as a result of negotiations between Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko and Prime Minister of Russia Mikhail Mishustin, BelTA has learned.

The document was signed by Belarusian Finance Minister Yuri Seliverstov and Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.

The key goal of the agreement is to harmonize Belarusian and Russian taxation laws and advance cooperation in taxation. Belarus and Russia are supposed to bring their tax legislation concerning VAT and excise duties into compliance with the agreement by 1 January 2023. For instance, rates of excise duties on the minimal list of goods and services the agreement specifies cannot be below the rates specified by the agreement’s addendum.

Apart from that, the agreement stipulates common lists of operations, which are exempted from VAT or are subject to lower VAT rates.

The document also provides for creating an integrated system for the administration of indirect taxes. The system will store information about operation of Belarusian and Russian VAT payers, which are registered with the taxation authorities as of 1 January 2023. The information is needed for end-to-end analysis of VAT data.

The agreement also provides for setting up a supranational tax committee that will oversee the observance of the agreement by the sides.

The agreement was signed as part of the efforts to realize the 28 Union State programs, which were adopted by an ordinance of the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Belarus and Russia on 4 November 2021.