Income tax for highly qualified specialists

Under the Tax Code of Russia (sub-section 3 of the article 224) foreign nationals who have highly qualified specialist status shall pay 13 % income tax.

Therefore, a HQS acquires a status that is similar to a status of “tax resident” as soon as obtains a work permit. Such rule of law simplifies accounting in the income area for an employer since he does not have to:

• keep track of the number of days of HQS’s stay within the territory of Russia for the purposes of defining HQS’s tax status

• recount previously withheld income tax in cases when a foreign national did not have a resident status but acquired it subsequently (tax rate for non-residents is 30%)

• carry out offset of unduly retained tax in future payments

It is also worth noticing that according to the Ministry of Finance, gifts, bonus checks, payments for food etc. are not considered as remuneration of labour. Therefore, HQS shall pay 30 % tax for this type of income until he/she becomes a tax resident after staying in Russia for certain amount of days (no less than 183 days in 12 months ).