OREANDA-NEWS. New draft regulations and forms of documents for the accreditation of branches and representative offices (“RO”) of foreign legal entities (“FLE”) were recently published through the Unified Web Portal for publishing information on development of draft regulations by the federal executive bodies and the results of their public consideration. These draft legislative acts were developed to clarify the new rules for the accreditation of branches/ROs of FLEs as set out by Federal Law No. 106-FZ of 5 May 2014 “On Introduction of Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation”.

According to the draft resolution, accreditation functions with respect to the majority of branches/ROs are to be transferred from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation and State Registration Chamber to the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation (the “FTS”). 

Branches/ROs with accreditation that will not expire by 1 April 2015 must register with the new State Register of Accredited Branches and Representative Offices of Foreign Legal Entities (the “Register”). Failure to meet this requirement will result in automatic termination of accreditation for such branches/ROs effective from 1 April 2015.

As of 1 January 2015, accreditation of new branches/ROs will be done under a new procedure, which is described in draft orders elaborated by the FTS. These draft orders also stipulate how documents are to be registered, the digital formats of applications for electronic submission, specific requirements and a list of necessary documents for accreditation of branch/RO, grounds for terminating accreditations, etc.he aforementioned draft regulations are being considered by the responsible state authorities. The term of their adoption has yet to be determined.