The 12th International Annual IBA Conference “Law Firm Management” 
Managing Partner of Legal Boutique “SDL” Dmitry Smirnov participated in the 12th International Annual IBA Conference “Law Firm Management”. The conference was organized by the International Bar Association in Moscow on December 7, 2018.
The Conference is a unique and unrivalled platform that unites law firms the world over in discussing issues faced by the legal business. This conference also allows key decision makers to meet and to exchange their experience.
More than 150 members of different Bar Associations and representatives of the leading International and Russian law firms took part in the 12th International Annual IBA Conference this year.
One of the key topics of the conference was the question of managing the high risks of legal practice in the current legal environment. This issue is particularly relevant for attorneys due to the frequent cases of pressure from law enforcement agencies. Furthermore, attorney’s reputational risks and the need of liability imposition for obstruction of advocate activity were also discussed.
The imposition of such responsibility should bring safety for attorneys. Furthermore, the liability for failure to provide a response to an attorney’s request is also needed, it should have a positive effect for adversary proceedings.
The Forum of Heads of Legal Departments
On December 20, 2018, Managing Partner of Legal Boutique “SDL” participated in the Forum of Heads of Legal Departments. The Forum was dedicated to the issues of effective management of the legal department. The event was organized by a journal “Legal Insight”.
The speakers of the conference were the heads of legal departments – the winners and nominees of the contest “The Best Legal Departments of Russia”. Different experience of large and medium-sized Russian companies and the experience of state and international corporations were presented on the Forum.
One of the sessions was “Transformation of the role of a lawyer through the eyes of business”. The discussed questions on this session were about positioning yourself within the company; what problems the business sees when interacting with lawyers; how to demonstrate your value to business, etc.
The Managing Partner of our Legal Boutique “SDL” took part in the business game, the purpose of which was to optimize the efficiency of the legal department. The heads of legal departments of the largest companies in the country from different fields took part in the game. The team of our Managing Partner was the second place winner, and won the audience award.
Business Breakfast in Moscow: Declaration of foreign assets and citizenship by investment programs
On 6th March 2019, the team of Legal Boutique “SDL” participated in a business breakfast, which was dedicated to declaration of foreign assets.
The experts of the event discussed the issues of declaration of foreign assets and filing notifications of controlled foreign companies (“CFC”) with the Russian tax authorities. Furthermore, the new changes in Russian tax legislation, the rules for declaring foreign assets and strategies for behavior under current conditions have also been the subject of discussions.
Nowadays, the issues of CFC due to the new changes in legislation (Chapter 3.4 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation on the CFC and Art. 246.2 on the residence of foreign companies) and signed Agreements for the Avoidance of Double Taxation with many countries have made it increasingly important. In recent years, the number of disputes arising from the use of Russian agreements on the avoidance of double taxation has increased. Therefore, declaration of foreign assets is frequent subject of discussion among business representatives and lawyers.
The participants of the event had the opportunity to have their questions answered. They were mostly interested in information about the deadlines of filing CFC notifications, what documents confirm the active status of CFC (According to the art. 25.13-1 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), and tax exemption issues.
The special attention was also paid to the benefits of investment programs: from visa-free access to a large number of countries, to favorable tax regimes and guarantees of financial and social security, and the opportunity to obtain second citizenship through investments.
Colleagues from the investment company ASTONS highlighted that Citizenship by investment, undoubtedly, can bring certain benefits, such as free movement without the need to obtain a visa, and the possibility of choosing the nationality of children, etc. On the other hand, there could be some disadvantages, for instance, military conscription in the country of second citizenship, the obligation to notify state authorities about your second citizenship, and tax liabilities.
