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Question: On confirmation of the actual time of stay of foreign persons in the Russian Federation for the purposes of personal income tax; about responsibility for the accuracy of determining the tax status of a natural person.

Answer:

The Federal Tax Service, in connection with the letter of the Tax and Customs Policy Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation considered a letter dated April 23, 2017 and regarding the determination of the tax status of individuals for tax purposes on individuals\' income, reports the following.

To determine the tax status of an individual, the relevant provisions of Chapter 23 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter, the Code) are applied.

According to paragraph 2 of Article 207 of the Code, tax residents are individuals who actually stay in the Russian Federation for at least 183 calendar days for 12 consecutive months. The period of an individual’s stay in the Russian Federation is not interrupted for periods of his / her departure from the Russian Federation for short-term (less than six months) treatment or training.

Regardless of the actual time spent in the Russian Federation, as tax residents of the Russian Federation there are recognized Russian military personnel serving abroad, as well as employees of state and local government authorities assigned to work outside the Russian Federation (paragraph 3 of Article 207 of the Code). At the end of the tax period, the final tax status of an individual is established, depending on the time that the individual has been in the Russian Federation in a given tax period, which determines the procedure for taxing personal income on income of individuals for the tax period.

The Code does not establish a list of documents confirming the actual presence of foreign persons in the territory of the Russian Federation. Therefore, such confirmation is possible on the basis of any documents drawn up in the prescribed manner and allowing to establish the number of calendar days of the person’s stay in the territory of the Russian Federation.

At the same time, the certificate of registration at the place of temporary stay, documents on registration at the place of residence (stay) , issued in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation of the Russian Federation, confirm the registration of an individual in the Russian Federation, but are not documents confirming the actual time of an individual’s stay in the territory of the Russian Federation.

In accordance with paragraph 5 of Article 24 of the Code, the tax agent is responsible in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation for failure to fulfill or improper performance of the duties assigned to it, as provided for by paragraphs 3 and 3.1 of Article 24 of the Code.

In this regard, the responsibility for the correctness of the determination of the tax status of a natural person - the recipient of income lies with the organization, which is a tax agent.

22 May 2018