US Persons Must Obtain License To Pay Russia 'Exit Tax' For Assets Divestment - Treasury

US persons are required to receive a special license to be able to pay the so-called "exit tax" payment, established by Russia, for assets divestment with respect to the countries considered unfriendly by Moscow, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) explained on Thursday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 31st March, 2023) US persons are required to receive a special license to be able to pay the so-called "exit tax" payment, established by Russia, for assets divestment with respect to the countries considered unfriendly by Moscow, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) explained on Thursday.

On Monday, the Russian Ministry of Finance said that companies from unfriendly countries will be required to pay at least 10% of half of their market value to the Russian budget if they decide to divest from Russian assets. Moreover, such companies will be required to voluntarily send to the budget at least 10% of the market value of the relevant assets, if the sale of assets is carried out at a discount of more than 90% of the market value.

"US persons whose divestment from the Russian Federation will involve the payment of such an exit tax require a license from OFAC prior to the payment of such tax, unless otherwise authorized by OFAC," OFAC said.

On February 24, the Department of the Treasury issued a general license 13D that authorized certain administrative transactions involving US persons and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation if such transactions are ordinarily incident and necessary to the day-to-day operations in the Russian Federation of such US persons through June 6.

OFAC clarified that any payment of exit taxes is not considered ordinarily incident and necessary to day-to-day operations in the Russian Federation and, thus, is not authorized under the general license 13D.