VAT office for Online Service Providers

Starting from 2019 VAT shall be calculated and paid by a foreign organization (online service provider, intermediary) in relation to all the operations regardless who is the consumer of such electronic services – an individual or the Russian legal entity or individual entrepreneurs (B2C, B2B). Russian legal entities and individual entrepreneurs shall not pay such VAT under reverse-charge VAT mechanism. This new approach applies to e-services paid for from 01.01.2019.

You may take our online test and answer a few questions to find out whether your company is subject to registration with Russian tax authorities. It won't take more than 3 minutes.

VAT registration procedure for foreign companies, rules for calculating and paying VAT are similar to current rules applicable when e-services are provided to Russian individuals. Applications for VAT registration can be submitted online from 01.01.2019 through the online platform “VAT office for online service providers”. In case a foreign organization is already VAT registered with the Russian tax authority in relation to delivering e-services to Russian individuals, re-registration is not required.

You need to apply for registration. You can do it by Submitting an application online. After you provide all necessary data, we will arrange access to your Online Personal Account within 30 working days and notify you by e-mail.

The list of such services is established by article 174.2 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. These include providing Russian customers with for charge online services like streaming music, films, gaming services, domain names, hosting, website and webpage support etc.

For e-services to be rendered and paid from 01.01.2019 the effective VAT rate of 16, 67 % (20/120 %) shall be applied. Should the payment from a consumer is made in 2019 for the e-services delivered in 2018, the effective VAT rate of 15, 25 % (18/118 %) shall be applied. If the payment from a consumer is received in 2018 for the services to be delivered in 2019, VAT shall be calculated at a rate of 15, 25 % (18/118 %). Please note that if the payment is made in 2018 by a consumer – a legal entity or an individual entrepreneur, reverse-charge VAT mechanism shall be applied by this legal entity or individual entrepreneur irrespective of when the e-service will be delivered. For more detailed information please refer to the letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia.

Every quarter. The VAT return should be submitted no later than 25th of the month following the reporting quarter.
The VAT should be paid no later than 28th of the month following the reporting quarter.

The VAT payment details as well as the guidance for completing a payment order for transferring VAT amount have been posted in the VAT Office for Online Service Providers, as well as in the Online Personal Account for Online Service Providers. You should log into your Online Personal Account, go through the section «My tax» and refer to the link «Payment details».