Investigators will not need tax specialists to initiate cases

On 29 September 2014, the State Duma adopted amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure which allow investigators to initiate criminal tax cases without going through the tax service. The investigators can seek the opinion of the tax specialists, but they need not follow the advice, and they do not need to wait for a response before initiating legal procedures. Lawyers are concerned that the measure will harm foreign investment and that the Investigative Committee will become the regulator of economic relations instead of the Supreme Arbitrazh Court.

Arthur Zarubyan, the head of the International Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Practice of the ART DE LEX law firm, agrees with his colleagues. According to him, in large regions, such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Federal Tax Service’s departments will not manage the volume of cases, which means that they will not address them. “Retaining the fifteen-day period, after which the investigator can make his own decision about the initiating a procedure in the absence of any response from the tax authority, preserves the procedure established in the first version of the bill.” He believes that the draft likely will not satisfy the Russian business community, and it will not prevent further actions that will “terrify” business.

The text of the draft law No. 357559-6 “On Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation (to clarify the order of criminal cases)” is available at http://asozd2.duma.gov.ru/main.nsf/%28Spravka%29?OpenAgent&RN=357559-6&02.