The Government of the Russian Federation approved the draft federal law “On Amendments to Article No. 149 of Part Two of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation”.
The bill provides for exemption from value added tax on operations for the sale of waste paper in Russia. In addition, the document defines the concept of "waste paper", which is interpreted as "paper and cardboard waste production and consumption, discarded and obsolete paper, cardboard, printing products, business papers, as well as documents with an expired storage period."
According to the Government’s official statement, the abolition of VAT on waste paper operations will create conditions for counteracting unlawful tax refunds and lowering the tax base.
The initiator of the adoption of this draft law, as well as Federal Law No. 458-FZ and other legislative initiatives, was the Nonprofit Partnership “League of Recyclers of Waste Paper”. In 2016, the association plans to continue work on developing the secondary raw materials industry in Russia and protecting the interests of processing enterprises.