Alexander Sotov, FBK Legal's partner on amendments to the Convention for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion between Russia and Luxembourg

Alexander Sotov, FBK Legal’s partner in his interview to Izvestiya commented upon the news that Russian government approved the amendments to the Convention for the avoidance of double taxation with Luxembourg. According to the article, from now on the county’s banks are obliged to report to the Russian fiscal authorities data of their client’s accounts.

The terms about information exchange had already existed in the Convention, however it was unclear, which organizations exactly were obliged to provide the data to the fiscal authorities. Actually this very lack of specifics was actively exploited by Luxembourg authorities. The amended Convention now says that credit institutions, trustees and agents must communicate information about accounts of their clients to the relevant authority of the partner-country.

“The treaty with Luxembourg is being adopted to be really implemented. At the same time it is just a matter of paperwork for fiscals to make up an equivalent surrogate document to justify a tax inspection”, Sotov commented.