Reports on foreign deposits for Russian citizens

In accordance with Resolution No. 1365 of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 12 December 2015, all individuals who are residents of the Russian Federation are required, by 1 June 2016, to submit to the tax authorities at their place of registration in Russia reports for 2015 on movements of funds in bank accounts (deposits) held outside the Russian Federation.

This means that even if a Russian citizen is a tax resident of another country and pays their taxes there in full, but visits their country of origin once or twice a year, they automatically become a foreign exchange resident of Russia and must report to the tax authorities for the previous year, from 1 January to 31 December of the reporting year inclusive.

Tax return on foreign deposits

The return itself consists of two A4 pages and requires passport details (do not forget to specify this type of document in accordance with the reference guide on codes and types of documents certifying the taxpayer’s identity; the Russian Federation citizen’s passport is listed as No. 21):

• surname, first name and patronymic, as recorded in the document;
• the address of the tax authority to which the report is being submitted;
• the taxpayer’s address;
• the name of the bank outside the Russian Federation;
• where the deposit account is held;
• the account number, SWIFT code and currency code (in accordance with the All-Russian Classification of Currencies – numerical and alphabetic codes);
• the country’s numerical code (in accordance with the All-Russian Classifier of Countries).

Cyprus’s code under this classification is 196. You must also specify whether the account is a personal or joint account. In the case of a joint account, each co-holder must draw up and complete their own report.

In addition, you must state the account balance at the start of the reporting period, the amount credited to the account during the entire reporting period, the amount debited from the account during the reporting period, and the account balance at the end of the reporting period.

Online submission

This document can be submitted to the tax authorities online via the ‘Personal Account’ service on the nalogi.ru website; to do this, you will need to enter your TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number) as your login.

You can obtain a password by submitting a personal application to your regional Federal Tax Service office. You must then change this password immediately. The key for the document’s electronic signature can also be obtained via the taxpayer’s ‘Personal Account’. The document must be signed with an electronic signature.

The processing time for your online application is between three hours and three working days. Alternatively, you can submit the report in paper form via ‘Russian Post’ in two copies, one of which must be returned to the address specified in the document.

You may submit the report either in person or through a representative, specifying on page 2 the representative’s surname, first name and patronymic, together with the authorised person’s handwritten signature.

In our next article, we will explain what constitutes legitimate transactions on a foreign bank account and what penalties are imposed for failure to comply with the regulation.