New Year’s Surprise from the Ministry of Finance: Changes to the List of Countries Participating in Automatic Financial Information Exchange
Starting from December 31, 2024, the Ministry of Finance is updating the list of countries participating in the automatic exchange of financial information.
Who is excluded from the list?
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland, France, Croatia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Estonia.
What does this mean for private clients?
From December 31, 2024, Russian citizens and foreign nationals with Russian residence permits residing in Russia for more than 183 days will be prohibited from receiving funds from non-residents into accounts in these countries, except for certain operations, such as interest on account balances or salary payments.
Prohibited transactions include:
- Coupons;
- Dividends;
- Income from the sale or redemption of securities;
- Income from the sale of real estate;
- Liquidation payments.
What are the penalties?
Receiving funds from non-residents for operations not specified in Article 12 of the Federal Law “On Currency Regulation and Currency Control” will be considered illegal and subject to a fine of 20% to 40% of the transaction amount.
What should you do?
If a non-resident has already transferred funds to your account in one of the excluded countries for an operation not listed in Article 12, you have 45 days to transfer the received funds to a Russian bank account to avoid penalties.
We recommend opening an account in a country still participating in automatic exchange or using a financial institution without a banking license, as these restrictions do not apply to such accounts.
