Monitoring of the Federal Legislation dated 29.01.2004

Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of January 29, 2004 on the Case of Constitutionality of Individual Provisions of Article 30 of the Federal Law on Labour Pensions in the Russian Federation Pursuant to the Requests of Groups of Deputies of the State Duma, As Well As the Federal Assembly (Il Tumen) of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Duma of the Chukotka Autonomous District and the Appeals of a Number of Citizens

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation recognised as constitutional the norm contained in Item 4 of Article 30 of the Federal Law on labour pensions in the Russian Federation inasmuch as it excludes the beneficial (aliquot) procedure of calculation of the total length of work when assessing the pension rights of the insured as of January 1, 2002 by their conversion (transformation) into the estimated pension capital and does not permit to take into account in the total length of work certain periods of publicly useful activities included into it according to the earlier available legislation. The given norm may not serve as the grounds impairing the terms of implementation of the right for the pension support since it does not prevent a citizen from implementing the assessment of his pension rights obtained before January 1, 2002 including those pertaining to the calculation of the length of work and pension amount according to the norms of the earlier available legislation.
The revealed meaning of the mentioned norm is obligatory for all and excludes any other its interpretation in the legal practice. The cases of the applicant citizens must be revised taking into account the revealed legal meaning.
The Decision is entered into force immediately after annunciation.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 41 of January 23, 2004 on the Endorsement of the Sample State Contracts for the Scientific Research and Design Works under a State Defence Order

The sample forms define the subject and terms of the contracts, the rights and duties of the parties, time of execution, procedure of accepting of fulfilled works, cost of works and the payments procedure, terms of confidentiality, other additional terms and responsibility of the parties.

Order of the Ministry of Communication of the Russian Federation No. 3 of January 19, 2004 on the Endorsement of the Rules of Application of the Signal Combining Devices of Several Communication VHF and UHF Radio Transmitters

Defines the procedure of application of the signal combining devices of several communication VHF and UHF radio transmitters intended for joint operation of several radio transmitters on a common load (antenna) without mutual interference operating in the frequency ranges of 136...174 MHz, 403...470 MHz, 890...960 MHz and 1710...1990 MHz. Specifies the requirements to the electric and functional parameters of the signal combining devices, to their technical characteristics, requirements to resistance to mechanical and climatic impact, electric safety requirements.
The rules apply to confirm the compliance of the signal combining devices used in the public use network, technological communication networks and special purpose communication networks if connected to the public use communication network.
The rules are entered into force from March 1, 2004.
Registered in the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation on January 23, 2004. Reg. No. 5482.

Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation No. 105n of November 24, 2003 on the Endorsement of the Accounting Regulation PBU 20/03 "Information on the Participation in the Joint Activities"

Specifies the rules and procedure of disclosing of information on participation in joint activities in accounting reports of commercial organisations (other than credit organisations). PBU defines the rules of registration of economic operations in the accounting work and reports of organisations in cases of joint operations, joint use of assets and joint activities. PBU is not applied by the organisation in cases of conclusion of a constituent agreement or agreement creating a financial industrial group resulting in the forming of a legal entity or financial industrial group, as well as making contributions in the registered, shared capital, shared fund of another organisation. PBU also does not apply in cases of conclusion of an agreement on participation in the joint activities other than the one envisaging the making of economic profit or income.
Information on participation in joint activities implies the one disclosing part of activities of an organisation (reported segment) carried out to make economic profit or income together with other organisations and/or independent entrepreneurs by combining contributions and/or joint activities without the forming of the legal entity.
The Order is entered into force beginning with accounting reports for the year 2004.
Registered in the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation on January 22, 2004. Reg. No. 5457.

Order of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation No. 1006 of November 12, 2003 on the Endorsement of the Lists of Information on the Forestry Fund of the Russian Federation Provided Free of Charge and at Cost

Specifies that information of the state records of the forestry fund of the Russian Federation and the annual report "Status and Use of the Forestry Resources of the Russian Federation" is provided free of charge. Other information of the state records of the forestry fund, forestry planning materials, hunting and geobotanical prospecting of territories and other information is provided at cost.
Registered in the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation on January 20, 2004. Reg. No. 5437.

Order of the Ministry of Taxation of the Russian Federation No. BG-3-05/38 of January 23, 2004 on the Invalidation of the Methodology Recommendations on the Procedure of Calculation and Payment of the Uniform Social Tax

Invalidates the Order of the Ministry of Taxation of the Russian Federation No. BG-3-05/344 of July 5, 2002 on the endorsement of the Methodology Recommendations on the procedure of calculation and payment of the uniform social tax with amendments.

Decision of the Higher Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation No. 7307/03 of October 8, 2003

Invalidates the provisions of Paragraphs 6 and 7 of Section "Particulars of Filling of Column 3 of the Advance Payment Estimate by Organisations Using Tax Exemptions in Compliance with Article 239 of the Code" of the Procedure of filling of the advance payment estimate for the uniform social tax endorsed by the Order of the Ministry of Taxation of Russia No. BG-3-05/49 of February 1, 2002 (in the wording of the Order of the Ministry of Taxation of Russia No. BG-3-05/134 of March 26, 2003), as well as the provisions of Paragraphs 37 and 39 of Section "Procedure of Filling of the Declaration (Lines 0100-1100)" of the Instruction on the filling of the tax declaration for the uniform social tax endorsed by the Order of the Ministry of Taxation of Russia No. BG-3-05/550 of October 9, 2002.
The earlier specified procedure of calculation of advance payments for the tax due for transfer to the federal budget does not increase the tax burden, however, it contradicts the procedure of calculation of the uniform social tax envisaged in Article 243 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation changing the sequence of actions of the taxpayer when calculating the uniform social tax, which permits to recognise the normative legal act on taxes and fees as not complying with the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Decision of the Higher Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation No. 8551/03 of August 14, 2003

The applicant challenged the legality of the provision of Sentence 2 of Paragraph 2 of Item 1 of Section 4 "Incomes" of the Methodology Recommendations on the application of Chapter 25 "Profit Tax from Organisations" of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation endorsed by the Order of the Ministry of Taxation of Russia No. BG-3-02/729 of December 20, 2002. According to the applicant, the mentioned provision illegally imposes the duty to include in the non-sales incomes amounts of fines or reimbursement of losses regardless of the applicant claims to the contactor and in the absence of debtor objections. The challenged provision violates the rights of the taxpayers determining the incomes using the accrual method to include in the non-sales incomes amounts of incomes in the form of civil actions only in cases of implementation of the right to demand the payment of these sanctions to the debtor and debtor actions confirming the acknowledgement of the debt in the form of a penalty or losses and the readiness to pa y them.
Having examined the case, the court recognised the applicant demands as substantiated and decided to invalidate Sentence 2 of Paragraph 2 of Item 1 of Section "Incomes" of the Methodology Recommendations on the application of Chapter 25 "Profit Tax from Organisations" of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation endorsed by the Order of the Ministry of Taxation of Russia No. BG-3-02/729 of December 20, 2002.