In the last days of 2005, the Committee on Work and Social Policy of the State Duma has begun to draft a bill that would replace the Unified Social Tax with payments to private insurance companies.

A.E. Shishkin, legal expert at Alinga Consulting Group has recently prepared an analysis of the changes being considered to regulation of NGOs in Russia. The analysis is available in full on the Russian part of our site.

The Russian Parliament is now debating a bill to provide "greater oversight" of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Russia. Officially, the bill is part of Russia's anti-terrorism measures, meant to curb money laundering and foreign funding of political activities inside Russia. In this context, the bill is within the logical and constitutional powers of the Russian government. However, the bill's opponents claim that it is written in vague language (as are most Russian laws) so that officials can interpret and enforce it as they see fit. Therefore, the opposition continues, in a country where the average business pays $135,000 a year in a bribes (according to a Kremlin study) and where democracy has seen increasing obstacles (according to nearly everyone), such oversight is a bit like asking the fox to guard the hen.

For this, our fifth anniversary, Alinga Consulting Group is launching another seminar on current topics which we think are very important – especially at the start of the winter business season. We take pleasure to invite you to “The Tax Climate for Businesses in Russia: An overview of taxation in light of changes to the tax legislation as of January 1, 2006.”

As of approximately one month ago, anyone applying for a Russian work permit must undergo a battery of tests, mostly for diseases that almost never occur in western countries. While the American Chamber of Commerce is currently battling these new regulations, they are currently in effect and surrounded by a good amount of rumor. We asked Josh Wilson, a language consultant working with ACG, to tell us about his recent experience in getting these tests completed.

Before going on a well-paid vacation (each deputy gets 140 thousand rubles), the State Duma quickly approved four new acts. This legislation touches upon the interests of all taxpayers: changes to the rules for VAT payments, indexation of excise taxes, the shortening of the statute of limitations for privatization deals. These also share a common feature: they were all passed in a form that satisfied the government.

The following article was published in The Moscow Times on April 28, 2005.

Since the beginning of this year, thousands of foreign employees of branch and rep offices have found themselves without the legal right to work in Russia, as the immigration authorities refuse to issue them work permits.

The following is a translation of the original Russian article on Klerk.ru, which can be found at http://www.klerk.ru/print.php?17984.