Ekaterina Subbotina
Head of Practice
Ekaterina specialises in tax advisory and complex advisory involving tax, civil and other branches of law. She has over 20 years of experience and expertise in tax law, tax dispute resolution, civil law, advisory on matters related to taxation (civil, land, investment, town-planning, intellectual property law) and support of complicated judicial disputes (including support of case consideration in the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation).
Ekaterina advises clients on tax risks associated with Russian and cross-border transactions (matters concerning taxation of e-services, creation, accounting treatment and disposal of intellectual property), and tax matters related to investments in construction. She has experience of participation in big consulting projects related to structuring of businesses, including businesses with international elements.
Ekaterina has also been involved in contractual and litigation work aimed to protect interests of big owners of real estate, including land assets (public and private subjects) and assisted clients during various audits (conducted by tax authorities, competition regulators and law enforcement agencies).
She passed an arbitration judge qualification exam (with top marks).
Specialization
- Tax consulting
- Assistance during pre-audit analysis of taxpayers
- Assistance with contracts (tax due diligence and tax review of contracts)
- Comprehensive advisory on tax
- Civil and other branches of law
- Tax and other disputes
Education
Major projects:
Contract support
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tax expertise of all current business contracts of the Russian division of a transnational technology company – the world leader in the IT & Mobile Communications markets (tax review of contracts) (250+ tax reviews over the past two years);
- tax expertise of the contractual structure of a regional IT company, agency and advertising services, recommendations for reducing tax risks;
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new requirements for mandatory pre-installation of Russian software (for manufacturers and sellers of technologically sophisticated products),
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joint marketing and advertising campaigns (co-branding programmes),
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contracts for retailing of goods through a big transnational marketplace,
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provision of services for the promotion of software, applications, websites by installing them or placing links in technically complex products;
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cross-border sales and purchases of software rights;
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acquisition of transportation and logistics services for international carriage;
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encouraging employees of an IT company by transferring digital currency tokens to them.
Tax business structuring of large federal and regional clients
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preparing an analytical study of the organisational structure of a group of companies (an international group), tax aspects of intercompany services and advising on risk mitigation;
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supporting a regional investor at the stage of negotiations on the implementation of an investment project for the construction of a large manufacturing enterprise with foreign investment
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tax support on the relations structuring for the transfer by a foreign company of the right to manage the assets of a Russian legal entity and on tax aspects of transferring rights to use a trademark;
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analysing and advising on the applicability of the 10% VAT rate for sales of certain food products (analysing different options and preparing arguments for a potential tax dispute (for a fast food restaurant chain));
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analysing and advising on tax aspects and business structuring risks for a big federal retailer.
Defense in tax and other disputes
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managing tax payment collection to the budget of a big Russian city;
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preparing objections to findings of an on-site tax audit of a coal company to defend the company from tax claims at the pre-trial stage (the total amount claimed was over RUB 4 bn — this is one of the biggest tax cases of the last five years in the Siberian Federal District);
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preparing objections to findings of an on-site tax audit of a consolidated group of taxpayers and participating in their consideration
Tax consulting
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analysing and advising on the applicability of the 10% VAT rate for sales of certain food products (analysing different options and preparing arguments for a potential tax dispute (for a fast food restaurant chain));
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assessing tax risks associated with the construction of a production facility (extraction and processing of minerals), finding the best legal way to formalise the investor’s ownership;
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assessing tax liabilities and risks associated with the provision of free meals to employees of a fast food restaurant chain.
Professional Community
- Working group of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) on tax system adjustment
