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The agency informed that the changes will cover more than 90% of payments to transit jurisdictions and additionally replenish the Russian treasury

The Russian Finance Ministry will propose changes to tax conventions with Hong Kong, Singapore and Switzerland. This was announced by Alexey Sazanov, the state secretary - Deputy Finance Minister, speaking in Gosudarstvennaya Duma.

"In terms of continuing to change the agreements, as I have repeatedly said, we have three key jurisdictions left – Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Regarding them, we will also propose to make changes to the agreements. This will cover more than 90% of payments to transit jurisdictions and further replenish the treasury of the Russian Federation," Sazanov said.

At the end of March 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to impose a tax of 15% on income in the form of dividends and interest transferred to accounts abroad. This required to modify double taxation conventions with other countries which allow to withdraw profits from Russia, paying tax at an effective rate of 2-3%, or to terminate such conventions in case no agreements on making appropriate changes are reached.

The Russian side has agreed new terms of tax conventions with the Republic of Cyprus, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and Malta, and the process of denunciation of the tax convention with the Netherlands has been launched.

TASS, tks.ru 11 May 2021