Russia’s Taxation System

The Russia Federation has a comprehensive tax code, instead of single tax laws. This tax code, in Russian called Nalogovey Kodex, also comprises the rules for tax processing. The tax code is the professional bible for tax experts, accountants and book-keepers. Russian Statutory Accounting is a practice mainly based on tax accounting rules, although about 20 Russian accounting standards (RAS) exist. Therefore, usually the accountants prepare the tax returns.

Russian book-keepers and accountants are usually the real tax experts - their detailed knowledge consists of about 20 Russian accounting standards. Formally, the tax consultancy profession is not really widely recognized. No wonder then, that Russian accounting standards are not considered that important, since the quarterly balance sheet and profit and loss statements are mainly requested by the tax authorities and they are not really interested in having statutory financial statements too different from the profit tax calculation.

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