Tax Treaty Case Law around the Globe 2015

S. 257Russia: Withholding Tax on Agency Fees under the Russia-Germany Tax Treaty (Articles 14, 15 and 21)

Danil V. Vinnitskiy

I. S. 258Introduction

One of the important factors influencing the further development of the case law on international taxation in the Russian Federation in 2014 was that the RF Supreme Commercial Court and the RF Supreme Court were merged. In the circumstances; when at the lower levels, commercial courts and courts of general jurisdiction remain separated and autonomous, the role of the decisions of the commercial courts of Federal districts (i.e. third instance or Cassation) has increased significantly. Accordingly, the role of the administrative practice of the tax authorities has increased as well.

The precedent, which it makes sense to analyse, is cross-border tax case No A56-20669/2013 (Mr. Goncharov vs. the Russian Tax Administration) which was connected with the issues of scheduling income derived from an agency fee as well as with the issue of interpretation of the term “dependent work”/ “income from employment” (Article 15 of the OECD / UN Model). The options for qualification of the respective income in line with Article 21 “Other income” or Article 14 “Independ...