Several Changes have been Introduced to Tax Legislation and Legislation on the Mandatory Insurance Contributions

Tax benefits to be granted to participants of Sklokovo innovation project have been specified.
 
Sale of premises, which are in the state and municipal ownership and rented by small enterprises, shall be Value Added Tax exempt.
 
Procedure for imposing personal income tax levied on the income from securities related transactions is specified.
 
Personal income earned as a result of sale of participatory interests in charter capital of Russian companies and some types of shares owned by a taxpayer for more than five years shall be personal income tax exempt.
 
Zero-rated profit tax shall be imposed on educational and healthcare organizations.  Such rate shall be applied by organizations basing on their respective applications.  However in this event an organization is to meet several requirements:

• it shall be licensed;
• it shall gain at least 90% of its profit from educational (or healthcare) activity and scientific researches and/or development work;
• it shall have at least 15 employees (in a healthcare organization 50% of employees are to be certified specialists) permanently employed;
• it shall avoid transactions with promissory notes and term transaction financial instruments within the taxable period.

Zero-rated profit tax shall be imposed in respect of profit gained from transactions with some types of shares and participatory interests in charter capital of Russian companies owned by a taxpayer for more than five years.
 
For entities and individual entrepreneurs applying the simplified tax system and conducting certain activities (the list of such activities is rather long and consists of 36 items) reduced rates of insurance contributions to state non-budgetary funds shall be imposed for 2011 – 2012.