Russneft headquaters, Moscow. Given the penalty for 2006, tax claims to Russneft may amount to from 18 billion rubles to 20 billion rubles.
Photo: Grigoriy Sobchenko
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Russneft to Face Double Tax Claims
The tax inspection of Russneft for 2006 was completed. According to informal data, the amount of extra charges may reach 20 billion rubles, i.e the tax claims to the company will double. The deal whereby Oleg Deripaska’s Basic Element buys out Russneft specifies no payments to tax authorities for 2006, so if the claims are finally presented, a new owner will get the company with extra burden.
The tax inspection of Russneft for 2006 was completed, said a source close to the company, pointing out that the report hasn’t been made out yet. In Russneft, they declined to comment on new claims. But people familiar with the situation said earlier that the oil company had applied in 2006 the same patterns as in 2003 through 2005, when the tax inspection revealed back taxes of 20.5 billion rubles.
Russneft went to law to challenge additional taxes but without success. The company had to specify tax debt of 19.65 billion rubles in its accounting report after the case was tried by the Appeal Instance of the Court.
Given the penalty for 2006, the tax claims to Russneft will probably amount to between 18 billion rubles and 20 billion rubles, according to a source of Reuters. The amount could be 2 billion rubles less, said a source of Kommersant.
Russneft has started clearing the tax debt of 2003 to 2005. It set off 10 billion rubles of VAT that the Federal Tax Service was to pay back to it and stakes on the operating profits to pay off the remainder by the fall. At the same time, the company is disputing the tax claims in the Supreme Arbitration Court.
Russneft posted the Q1 profits of 3.51 billion rubles under Russia’s Accounting Standards and the profits of 4.47 billion rubles for January to September of 2007, but its annual report hasn’t been elaborated yet.
The company's annual revenues were from $4.5 billion to $5.5 billion and the profits ranged from $0.8 billion to $1 billion, said IK Solid analyst Denis Borisov. But Russneft is burdened by huge debts - as much as $6.5 billion with regard to new claims of the tax officials. On the other hand, the company has time till 2011 to pay off the material portion of debts.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 06, 2008
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