Set-up a business in Russia

Investors often face problems when choosing among legal structures for their business in Russia.

A foreign legal entity can choose to establish a presence in Russia through a representative office or branch. Representative offices of foreign entities are strictly limited to liaison and support functions. Branch offices are free to perform all of a foreign entity’s activities. Many investors opt for branch offices at the outset because these entities are able to engage in any kind of commercial activity, easier to establish and subject to less onerous reporting requirements than those in place for Russian companies. At the same time, for many investments, including joint ventures and production plants, and owing to issues relating to licensing, customs and privatization of state property, a Russian legal entity may be better suited to an investor’s needs. The most common forms of corporate structure in Russia are Limited Liability Companies (LLC) and Joint Stock Companies (JSC). Foreign companies often use LLCs for their wholly-owned businesses in Russia.

Our Legal services include legal support for the branches / representative offices of foreign and Russian legal entities opening, starting with consulting on adoption the appropriate decision until receiving the documents confirming the branch / representative office of foreign and Russian legal entities opening as well as opening of bank accounts in various Russian banks.

Business Solutions and Technologies has a broad experience of acting as Company Secretaries for multinational companies, which allows a company to focus on its activities by outsourcing the corporate secretary function to professional team.

Disregarding determined procedures and rules might cause substantial risk to Company shareholders, the CEO of the Company and the Company itself: in particular, financial damage and the corresponding liability set by Russian law. Also, it may be a trigger for corporate disputes and threaten the Company’s financial standing and shareholders' interests.

We provide services for organizing and holding meetings of management bodies, preparing charters, regulations of management bodies and other corporate documents, registration of changes in the Unified state register of legal entities, as well as other services necessary to maintain the normal operation of your company. We provide our services on both a regular and one-off basis.

Legislative tracking allows us to offer relevant advice to our clients in a timely and effective manner to help them solve complex business issues. We study various approaches to assist our clients in alleviating their tax burden and minimizing risks that they may face in the future.

Our clients may take advantage of a full range of accounting and tax services we offer, or select those most relevant to them.

Our services:

• Maintenance of accounting records in accordance with Russian Accounting Standards (RAS)
• Preparation and submission of financial statements to tax authorities
• Maintenance of tax records in accordance with the effective tax legislation, preparation of tax registers
• Preparation of VAT, income tax, property tax, transport tax, and other tax returns
• Development of financial and tax accounting policies
• Advice on compliance with tax legislation and accounting standards
• Assistance in liaising with tax inspectorates and other government authorities
• Assistance in preparing responses to tax authority inquiries and during field and desk tax audits
• Secondment of qualified personnel and etc.

We carefully select specialists for our team to deliver top-quality services to our clients taking into account the specific nature of the industry they operate in.

We provide our services on both a regular and one-off basis:

• IFRS/US GAAP accounting and Head Office reporting
• Transformation of RAS financial statements to IFRS/US GAAP financial statements;
• Preparation of standalone and consolidated IFRS/US GAAP financial statements and explanatory notes
• Implementation and advancement of IFRS/US GAAP accounting procedures in parallel with RAS accounting procedures on the basis of professional accounting software (1C or SAP)
• Accounting for deferred tax assets and liabilities in accordance with IFRS/US GAAP
• Regular account closing and preparation of IFRS/US GAAP financial statements for management accounting purposes

In our work, we adhere to a flexible approach and offer optimized solutions for payroll calculation and HR administration. As part of our services, we not only calculate and prepare all the necessary documents and reports, but also help our clients successfully streamline the process in accordance with legislative requirements.

Our services:

• Calculation of payroll and other payments to the company’s employees, calculation of the respective taxes and contributions
• Preparation of payroll reports for submission to state authorities
• Preparation of certificates for employees, advice on payroll calculation and taxation
• HR administration services: preparation of HR documents and reports
• On-site visits to provide HR administration support to our clients
• Development and implementation of internal policies and procedures
• Labour safety arrangements
• Advice on compliance with labour laws and etc.

If the Clients do not have any representative person in Russia for set-up period we can provide our person for appointment as general director* for LLC or Head of the branch of foreign entity (Representative office). Also we provide a legal address for set-up period

and going forward if required**.

Our candidates for directorship services have relevant background (tax or legal) and several years experience in this role.

*  our directorship services are valid in case of complex contract , including bookkeeping or tax compliance services

** we provide small parts of our office for sublease for legal address registration purposes. If the Company needs to expire the space of office it can be also agreed additionally. Our office is located in the center of Moscow city, at Lesnaya street, near Belorusskaia metro station.