Russian Federation And Bangladesh Sign Double Taxation Agreement

by Tatiana Smolensky, Tax-News.com, Moscow

14 September 2001

Last week, Bangladesh and the Russian Federation initialled a treaty to avoid double taxation between the two countries after four days of negotiations, it was announced recently.

The agreement contained provisions governing taxation of income from aircraft operations, dividend payments, interest payments, and royalties. It also contained mechanisms for allowing tax credits in one country in respect of taxes already paid in the other.

The meeting was attended by several officials from both countries, including Faruq Ahmed Siddiqui representing the Bangladesh National Board of Revenue, and the deputy head of the Russian International Tax Relations Division, Dmitry V. Nikolaev. According to reports in the Bangladesh Independent, it was successful and cordial.

Tax matters have been prominent in the minds of Russian government officials for some time now, as the country continues to undergo scrutiny from the multilateral OECD and its associated body, the Financial Action Task Force.

However, domestically there was some relief recently, as it was revealed that as a result of the simplified tax code introduced by President Vladimir Putin, Russian companies were at last beginning to show profits and pay dividends to shareholders, where previously company directors had simply siphoned funds off to offshore tax havens, rather than face the multi-layered and punitive Russian taxation regime.

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