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New legislation establishing tax incentives for IT companies took effect as of January 1, 2021. This law introduced important changes at the fiscal level. On the one hand, it decreased the insurance contribution from 14 percent to 7.6 percent. Significant is the reduction of the income tax: only 3 percent, instead of the previous 20 percent. The payment of VAT is not mandatory for an IT company. However, as a requirement for this exemption such a company must be registered in the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation. It is also necessary that the software it produces be incorporated into the Unified Register of Russian Programs for Electronic Computers and Databases.¹

A second group of resolutions to support Russian companies in the information area, was put into effect on September 9, 2021, an Action Plan called "Creating Additional Conditions for the Development of the Information Technologies Industry".²

The regulation of each Fintech business model in Russia is independent. A Universal Licence for these types of businesses has not been established as of January 2022.³

Other institutions have regulatory action on fintech companies in addition to the main financial regulator:

• in Russia, financial management and overall supervision regarding finance are handled through the Ministry of Finance.
• the observance of taxation rules in general and regarding cryptocurrency mining and transactions with crypto assets is supervised by the Federal Tax Service, which is integrated into the Ministry of Finance.
• anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing are carried out by the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring); and
• fair competition and advertising, including financial products and services, are regulated through the Federal Antimonopoly Service, which ensures compliance with current regulations. ¹

Within this structure, there is no inherent regulation of web pages that make comparisons to financial products or services. However, these pages are considered to be regulated by the precepts of advertising and fair competition.¹

Crowdfunding in Russia

Fintech in other countries

Notes

1. https://thelawreviews.co.uk/title/the-financial-technology-law-review/russia
2. http://static.government.ru/media/files/gwQRcF4e3G6lA8vTMTNfNAcTWGeQxrt2.pdf
3. http://www.cbr.ru/Content/Document/File/116463/Consultation_Paper_22122020.pdf