A new draft law No. 1005169-8 will allow foreign companies to obtain a Russian taxpayer identification number (TIN) when opening a bank account in Russia.

The bill abolishes the current procedure of tax registration for foreign companies that need to obtain a TIN in order to open a bank account in Russia. Amendments are proposed to Articles 83 and 84 of the Russian Tax Code.

At present, a foreign company may obtain a TIN in only two ways:

by submitting an application and supporting documents directly to the tax authority;

through a bank, although in practice not all banks are willing to open an account without a TIN certificate or assume responsibility for interacting with the Federal Tax Service (FTS).

This creates administrative barriers for foreign businesses seeking to open accounts with Russian banks.

If the amendments are adopted, the procedure will change:

when opening an account, the bank itself will submit the application to the FTS;

the tax authority will issue an electronic extract, which the bank will provide to the client;

the foreign company will no longer need to apply to the FTS directly.

According to the explanatory note to the draft law, the initiative is based on law enforcement practice, which highlighted the need to simplify the procedure of tax registration for foreign businesses.

Source: Draft Law No. 1005169-8