This file photo of January 16, 2008 shows policeman near the British Council office in Ekaterinburg.
Photo: Konstantin Melnitsky
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British Council to Contest Tax Claims in Court
Moscow Arbitration Court completed yesterday the preliminary hearing of the British Council’s lawsuit against the RF Federal Tax Service, challenging the claims of 200 million ruble for the profit tax of 2004 through 2006. The sources say the British Council used to underestimate tax base, transferring revenues from its activities to accounts of British Embassy.
Yesterday in the Arbitration Court, spokesmen of Russia’s office of the British Council and defendants from the Federal Tax Service for Moscow summed up results of reconciliation reports. The case is now ready for the trial slated for September 19.
Founded by Britain’s government in 1934, the British Council has been operating in Russia since early 1990s, having three branches here – in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Ekaterinburg.
But the work of the regional branches was halted in December of 2007 by order of the RF Foreign Ministry, which attributed its ruling to illegal status of the British Council in Russia. The true reason was the evident aggravation of Russia’s-British relations, mostly the deportation of Russia’s diplomats from London in response to the Kremlin’s refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoy. Britain suspects Lugovoy in involvement in the lethal polonium poisoning of political emigrant and ex-officer of FSB Alexander Litvinenko.
It emerged in May that the British Council was presented with profit tax claims for 2004 through 2006. According to the sources, the matter at stake is 200 million ruble. Of interest is that both plaintiffs and defendants have declined to deliberate on the nature of violations. Tax officers have discovered that the British Council used to transfer to accounts of British embassy the revenues generated from English-language courses, the sources say off the record.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 22, 2008
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