Federal Law N 79-FZ dated 06.04.2024 amends the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation concerning the indexation of thresholds of damage amounts for tax and other economic crimes.

In particular, in the case of tax (fees, insurance contributions) evasion, the threshold of large size is increased from 15 million RUB for 3 consecutive financial years to 18.75 million RUB, and the especially large size under this article is increased from 45 million RUB to 56.25 million RUB(paragraphs 14 and 15 of Article 1 of the law).

The same amounts of large size and especially large size will apply to failure to fulfill the duties of a tax agent.

An amount exceeding RUB 7.5 million for 3 consecutive financial years and an amount exceeding RUB 37.5 million for the same period will be considered a large amount when evading payment of insurance contributions for compulsory social insurance against industrial accidents and occupational diseases to a state non-budgetary fund (clause 17 of Article 1 of the law). Currently, these amounts are RUB 6 million and RUB 30 million respectively.

For an individual insurer, the damage thresholds for a similar offense under Article 199.3 of the Criminal Code will be RUB 2.25 million for 3 fiscal years for a large amount and RUB 11.25 million for a particularly large amount.

In addition to tax offenses, the damage thresholds will be raised for articles on restriction of competition, illegal use of means of individualization, fraud and others.

According to the Law N 79-FZ, from 06.07.2024 evasion of customs payments, special, anti-dumping and (or) countervailing duties will be recognized as committed on a large scale if the amount of unpaid customs payments, special, anti-dumping and (or) countervailing duties for goods moved across the customs border of the Eurasian Economic Union, including in one or more consignments, exceeds three million RUB, on a particularly large scale – nine million RUB.

One of the reasons for the increase in damage thresholds is that, despite inflation, these amounts have not changed for a long time.

Law N 79-FZ was published on 06.04.2024. According to Article 3 of the law, this document comes into force 10 days after the official publication date (17.04.2024), with the exception of certain provisions coming into force ninety days after the official publication date.