Finance minister says business ignored 2016 offshore amnesty

MOSCOW, Dec 25 (PRIME) -- A 2016 offshore asset amnesty did not produce the results that the government expected, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in an interview to Rossiya 24 television channel broadcast on Monday.

“We think that the amnesty that we had in 2016 did not bring the results that we expected, frankly speaking,” he said.

“Many entrepreneurs, especially of the mid-sized business, did not believe that if they disclose the information, it will not be transferred to law enforcers…or to public sources and the media. Time has passed…and no such information was leaked from the tax service anywhere.

“So I think that today, especially with the pressure on Russian business abroad, they have all reasons not only to disclose their accounts, but to transfer them to Russia and into Russian financial instruments and banks, where these assets will be protected much more reliably than in Western financial institutions,” he said.

Under the law approved in 2014, Russians were allowed to declare assets, banking accounts, securities and stakes in companies registered in offshore countries and start paying taxes in Russia without criminal prosecution if tax avoidance took place before January 1, 2015. The amnesty was in effect until June 30, 2016.

On December 2022, Siluanov said that Russia may launch a new amnesty of offshore assets in 2018 for at least one year.

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