The peculiarities of taxation of permanent representations of foreign companies in accordance with the agreements on the avoidance of double taxation in the Russian Federation

Abstract

The subject of this research is the taxation of permanent representations of foreign companies, while the object is the permanent representations of foreign companies. The author examines such aspects of the topic as the impact of international agreements on the avoidance of double taxation upon the conduct of activity by the permanent representations in the territory of the Russian Federation, calculation of profits of permanent representations, and potential conflict situations due to the differences in the Russian tax legislation and the concluded tax agreements. The article explores the methods of transferring expenses confirmed by the accounting source documents, from permanent representations to the foreign parent companies in for the purpose of reduction of tax basis as well as presents the relevant arbitrage practice on the topic. The scientific novelty is substantiated by the use of permanent representations by both Russian and foreign companies, relevant problematic of their taxation in the Russian tax jurisdiction, which is the result that tax agreements contain only general norms and principles of calculating the tax basis for permanent representations. As a conclusion, the author makes proposals on specification of tax agreements with regards to toughening the requirements to calculation profits of the permanent representations and its redistribution, proof of expenses that could be unlawfully used or transferred to the foreign parent company to reduce the tax basis of the permanent representations.