There was a precedent when the tax authority considered it an illegal currency operation for a Russian resident to receive funds from renting out foreign real estate to a foreign account. This was reported the day before "Vedomosti".
The publication cites the case of a Russian citizen who rented out six commercial premises in Germany and received rental payments to his foreign currency account. The tax authorities considered his business activities and foreign exchange transactions illegal, and imposed a fine of 30% of the total amount of transactions on him.According to the tax service, the activity of renting out several commercial premises for the purpose of "systematic profit-making" qualifies as entrepreneurial and, accordingly, the provision of the "Law on Currency Regulation and Currency Control", which allows individuals and residents to accept money into their accounts, cannot be applied to it. funds from non-residents without restrictions.
The lack of special regulation for sole proprietors in the context of currency control has given rise to two directly opposite approaches in judicial practice, Evgenia Zainchukovskaya, adviser to the Verba legal tax practice, told Vedomosti. According to the first, sole proprietors are treated as ordinary individuals. According to the second, in the context of currency control, they are equated with legal entities.
It is unclear whether the precedent will develop into a generally accepted practice. It is also unclear whether this approach will affect the rental of housing.
Residential property owners may also be at risk, according to the partner of the law firm "Zhdanov, Koida, Rubalsky and partners" Kirill Rubalsky. According to him, the practice according to which the leasing of such premises is recognized as a tax entrepreneurial activity already exists, but so far the Federal Tax Service has used this approach for additional taxes, and not for currency control.
In today's reality, it is almost impossible to organize the transfer of funds from tenants in "unfriendly" countries to Russian accounts. Alternatively, make payments through intermediate banks in "friendly" ones, however, the costs can negate all profits.