The Ministry of Finance has proposed to introduce a special court for IT companies, which can be launched by 2024. We are talking about the consideration of criminal cases under economic articles. The agency is also considering the introduction of a moratorium on inspections, which, according to officials, will help companies “feel protected.”This was stated by the head of the department Maksut Shadaev at a meeting of the Federation Council for the Development of the Digital Economy, Interfax reports.
He noted that now there are criminal cases against almost all domestic IT companies, and the need for expertise complicates their investigation.
“Therefore, we propose to create a separate judicial instance that would investigate economic criminal cases against IT companies, where expertise, competence and so on would be needed,” the minister said.
Shadayev also recalled the provision of benefits to the industry — a reduction in income tax from 20% to 3% and a reduction in insurance premiums from 14% to 7.6%. In his opinion, this has made Russia “one of the most profitable jurisdictions for doing IT business, for software development.”
As a result, the companies that received benefits faced inspections by the Federal Tax Service. In order for the Russian IT sector to start creating jobs and returning from abroad, the Ministry of Finance proposed to introduce a moratorium on inspections for a period of three to five years.
Companies with annual sales of over 300 million rubles may fall under this package of measures. Shadaev believes that this will allow businesses to feel protected.
Last month, the release of Russian IT companies from inspections was discussed in the government. If approved, the initiative will be included in the second package of measures to support the industry, and a corresponding bill may be developed by the autumn of 2021.