Regulation of customs costs when importing
In the 90 years around 50% of total imports in Russia was unrecorded imports. This situation persisted until 2006 According to the former Minister of Economic Development and Trade German Gref, the share of ” gray” imports in 2006 ranged from 50 to 70% . In recent years the tendency of reducing the proportion of unreported imports . Thus, according to the customs in 2007, Russia was the lowest rate in the last decade, the share of illegal imports in total imported goods , which accounted for about 16 % of the total amount of official imports , which in monetary terms amounted to more than U.S. $ 29 billion . In the future, is expected to further decrease in this indicator .
Thus, in modern economic practice Russia is still basic and conflicting goals for import are:
– Or reduced import costs by reducing the customs value of goods
– Or vice versa – an increase in costs due to customs overstatement of the customs value of the goods.
In the first case, the main purpose of reducing customs costs is to create a ” safety margin ” for further price competition in the domestic market for this type of product. Decrease in the customs value when clearance enables import invoices for goods that are significantly lower than the price of goods in these invoices foreign seller.
In the second case, overstating the value ( and thus increase the amount of customs charges) aims to accumulate profits in the non-resident company at the initial stage of the operating cycle. Thereby overstating the value of the imported goods is aimed at reducing the tax burden for tax profits of domestic companies importing .
In practice, there are at least 10 “White ” schemes importation of goods into the territory of the Russian Federation. Which do not violate the laws of the country , but still end customer receives additional 10-20 % profit. It need professional financial analysts who know all the details of import laws .
With an abundance of international tax planning schemes that are regularly offered international consultants to their clients , their use can have serious limitations. Therefore, in each case, the activity holding companies importing goods to Russia , should be thoroughly studied by means of analytical procedures for financial and legal expertise , and the scheme should be developed their optimum performance and possible restructuring .