A law firm with a traditionally strong Russian business, as in the past ADVANT Beiten has an office in Moscow. Our clients are (medium-sized) industrial companies and family firms from Europe, North America or Japan and their Russian subsidiaries or joint ventures, but not Russian state companies or oligarchs. In these challenging times it is very important for our clients to have a local consultant that understands their culture, mentality and situation.
The recent successful completion of a case in the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation serves as a good example of our permanent presence on site.
Background information:
ADVANT Beiten represented successfully the interests of a client (the subsidiary of a German concern) in the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. In the dispute with the tax authority, the Russian Supreme Court agreed in full with the arguments put forward by ADVANT Beiten and recognised that the reduced rate of VAT might be applied to the sale of goods in Russia.
Within the framework of an audit the competent tax authority declared that the application of the reduced rate of VAT of 10% to the sale of goods was illegal. Our client contended that the application of the reduced rate of VAT to the sale of its goods was legitimate. During the consideration of the dispute the court of first instance and the court of appeal shared the position of our client, whereas the court of cassation adopted the tax authority’s position. On 22 January 2025 the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation brought an end to the dispute. During the consideration of the case the judges supported the arguments of our lawyers that the tax authority had during the audit applied criteria which are not established in Russian tax legislation as the grounds for disallowing the application of the reduced rate of VAT, in violation of Article 55 and Article 57 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. As a result, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation confirmed the legitimacy of applying the reduced VAT rate and ruled in favour of our client.
