Court acknowledges 2.4 bln rbl taxes, fines for Perekrestok legal

MOSCOW, Nov 30 (PRIME) -- The Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal has acknowledged legality of the Federal Tax Service’s decision to oblige supermarket chain Perekrestok of X5 Retail Group to pay 1.6 billion rubles of additional taxes and a 790 million ruble fine, the court said in a statement on Tuesday.

The court turned down the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court to side with the company and cancel the additional taxes and fines.

X5 Retail Group conducted business restructuring in 2013–2014, when Perekrestok bought companies Agrotorg and Agroaspekt, which managed Pyaterochka stores, from foreign owners.

Perekrestok bought 7.9% in Agroaspekt for 3.9 billion rubles and 6.7% in Agrotorg for 5.1 billion rubles from Dutch company X5 Retail Group N.V., and 83.4% in Agrotorg for 82.5 billion rubles from Cyprus-registered company Speak Global Ltd. Perekrestok received around 71 billion rubles of the sum under a loan from Speak Global Ltd and another Cyprus company X5 Retail Holding Limited.

The Federal Tax Service thinks that deals were done to withdraw money from Russia in the interests of foreign companies without paying taxes in the country. The service slapped additional taxes on the company in July 2018.

The Moscow Arbitration Court acknowledged the decision illegal in August 2021 and sided with the retailer’s argument that the deals were economically viable and allowed X5 Retail Group to create a consolidated taxpayer group.

Prior to that, the courts of all instances, including the Supreme Court, supported another decision of the tax service to slap 1.1 billion rubles of additional taxes over the same deals on Agroaspekt, the responsible participant of X5 Retail’s consolidated taxpayer group.

(74.9818 rubles – U.S. $1)

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