MinFin: software from foreign sites should not be taxed by Google
The Russian Ministry of Finance believes that the paid use of software from the websites of foreign companies should not be taxed by Google. As an example of such software, you can take the "cloud" office software, writes "Izvestia". As you know, since the beginning of this year in Russia came into force amendments to the Tax Code (NK), which received the name "tax on Google."
The point is that foreign companies operating in Russia must pay VAT on electronic services provided to citizens of the country. These amendments concern, for example, paid applications.for iOS and Android platforms, Uber work, renting apartments through AirBnB. A number of providers of electronic services have already registered with the Federal Tax Service, in some cases the tax will be paid by the Russian partners of foreign companies.
As for the programs located on servers outside the Russian Federation, the question of falling under the “Google tax” when using such software was asked by one of the Russian organizations using software over the Internet. The work is carried out "by providing the access code to the programs posted on the official website of the foreign organization." This organization requested the Ministry of Finance to pay VAT on financial transfers to a foreign company.
Having analyzed the request, the specialists of the Ministry of Finance of Russia came to the conclusion that Article 149 of the Tax Code exempts transactions on the transfer of rights to use the results of intellectual activity under a license agreement from VAT. According to a number of experts, there are quite a lot of similar software: “There are many such transactions between legal entities of the Russian Federation and non-residents. These are all kinds of cloud and other services, ”recalled Arseny Shcheltsin, director for project activities at the Internet Development Institute (IRI).
According to Nikita Isaev, director of the Institute of Actual Economics, all the services that are provided to Russians on the websites of foreign companies should be taxed: “Use cloud storage — pay, watch movies and TV shows in foreign online cinemas — pay, download games for money — pay , listen to music through streaming services - pay, order advertising - pay. There are no exceptions.
In the explanatory note to the bill “tax on Google” by the deputies Andrei Lugovoi and Vladimir Parakhin, they spoke about “improving the taxation rules for transactions made through the Internet, selling Russian companies access to databases, software, games, music, books, video products, etc. ". According to the authors of the amendments, the situation in which Russian companies pay VAT on the sale of electronic services, while foreign ones do not, is unfair. Lugovoy claims that the “Google tax” will bring an additional 10 billion rubles a year to the country's budget.