Moscow - Consulting Service Group wins Aeroflot tax case

We are glad to announce that this year Consulting Services Group has achieved a major success in tax litigation, supporting one of our major and imost nternationally well known clients – AEROFLOT JSC. The project described below is very important and was carried out for the Aeroflot subsidiary Aeroflot Cargo Division JSC. The case centred on export operations and regulation of the use of freight containers use for international flights. The task was to identify the legal basis and the fullness of VAT reimbursement for the indicated period. The total amount of claims to the tax authority for this case was about EUR 2,472,500. The project was launched in May 2011 and was successfully completeted in October 2012. The key members of the team of experts who guided this litigation to success were: Alexander ZUBOV, Senior lawyer and Viatcheslav GERASIMOV, Project manager of our Tax Advisory Department.

This case is unique for two reasons:

1. In the Russian judicial practice there are almost no cases when a taxpayer proves the validity of application of the VAT rate of 18%, but the tax authority want it to be 0%. Usually it's just the opposite.

2. In the Russian judicial practice there are many cases of the excessively paid tax reimbursement beyond the three year term according to the Tax Law. Normally these types of cases can be considered as rather difficult ones. The uniqueness of this dispute is that the taxpayer back beyond the three-year period was not searching for excessively paid tax reimbursement in the classic sense, but he wanted to have a refund of VAT that must have been applied by the court decision beyond the three-year period according to the Russian legislation. This type of cases is extremely rare in the Russian judicial practice.

Link to download of the official legal resolution for this case : HERE (IN RUSSIAN)

This case shows two things: that the new MGI member Consulting Services Group can provide the effective solutions for the most unusual tax related issues and that we can handle the complicated projects for the clients of such high importance as Aeroflot company. We are open for cooperation with MGI members and we would be glad to work together for Russian and International clients.

Contact for more information

Alexey Tekhnenko

CONSULTING SERVICES Group

Tel.:.   +7 495 925 77 07 (add.170)
Fax:   +7 495 963 70 39
Mob.:  +7 926 530 07 10
Email: [email protected]