The discussion was attended by Tatiana Ioffe, Director of the PNK Union, Elena Korshun, Deputy Head of the Interregional Inspectorate for the Largest Taxpayers No. 7 of the Federal Tax Service of Russia, Valentin Makarov, President of the Russoft Association, Roman Chukov, Chairman of the Board of the Competence Center for Global IT Cooperation, Vera Borisova, an independent expert in the field of taxation, finance, accounting and EDO and Evgenia Dmitrieva, President of the Union for Support and Development of Technology Companies. The moderator was Vasily Zudin, Deputy Director of the Competence Center for Global IT Cooperation.
Tatiana Ioffe spoke about the PNK Union and about the Russian Tax Congress, "Tax and Legal Reality - 2023: Autumn Session", which began in Moscow on September 27. "The Chamber of Tax Consultants has been engaged in multidisciplinary training of specialists in the field of economics, law and taxation for more than 20 years. Tax consulting, as an accompanying branch of tax administration, must necessarily develop digitally. Actually, this area, the IT sphere, is now the most relevant agenda of the tax week, which is held twice a year in the format of autumn and spring sessions. The most important issues of taxation and tax control, significant precedents of judicial practice are discussed," - Tatiana Ioffe said.
Valentin Makarov shared statistics about the state of the software development industry in his speech: "According to a study we recently conducted, 2022 was quite difficult for the IT sector. Development centers of foreign companies were relocated, Russian developers left, which affected the growth of the software development industry. On the other hand, the volume of sales by Russian companies increased by more than 30%. Despite the fact that exports decreased by only 20%. That is, we managed to adapt to the new realities, change the jurisdiction of sales and thus did not lose most of our customers. In total, it turned out that the total sales volume of the IT industry in Russia and abroad decreased by only 2-3%. And this year, the increase in total sales in Russia for 2023 is already planned to be about 20%. Of course, exports will take more time."
Elena Korshun, Deputy Head of the Interregional Inspectorate for the Largest Taxpayers No. 7 of the Federal Tax Service of Russia, spoke about the conditions for obtaining income tax benefits and insurance premiums, as well as about the types of activities when calculating 70% of the share of income. She also shared the risks of tax optimization associated with non-compliance with the conditions for the application of benefits and with the allocation of IT business. In general, in order to use the preferences of an organization, it is necessary to obtain accreditation from the Ministry of Finance and be included in the register of accredited IT companies. At the moment, there are about 25 thousand of registered organizations in the registry. "The most popular are benefits for insurance premiums and VAT payments. Revenue of IT companies increased by 26% in 2021, by 38% in 2022, and by 31% in the first half of 2023," Elena Korshun said.
Roman Chukov, Chairman of the Board of the Competence Center for Global IT-Cooperation spoke about the upcoming UN Internet Governance Forum, which will be held on October 8-12 in Kyoto (Japan) in a hybrid format. Accordingly, everyone can take part in it by registering on the official website. Within the framework of the forum, the Competence Center organizes several sessions on youth topics, Internet fragmentation, development of metaverses, etc. In the context of global initiatives and international activities, the Center actively participated in the development and consolidation of proposals from the Russian expert community for a Global Digital Treaty, the initiative of the UN Secretary-General to create a comprehensive international document that will outline the general principles of an open, free and secure digital future. "The Center also provides comprehensive assistance to Russian IT companies in entering the markets of the countries of the Global South. At the moment, we are working on a series of field events and business missions in Indonesia and Singapore in order to promote Russian software in the ASEAN countries. We are carrying out this work together with our partners and we plan that thanks to our efforts Russia will be represented in the markets of Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America," the expert shared.
