Relaxation of Currency Restrictions is Expected in 2020

The Ministry of Finance has drafted a Law for holders of foreign currency accounts opened abroad.

The Currency Law has a number of amendments for currency account holders, thus mitigating the requirements for them:

1. Residents will be able to receive any transfers from non-residents if this account was opened abroad. Such alterations apply to an account opened by a foreign bank and located in states members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Financial Action Task Force on Money-laundering (FATF) having an agreement with the Federal Tax Service (FTS) of Russia on automatic information exchange. FTS shall publish the list of such countries on its web-page .
2. Insignificant or dormant accounts of residents are exempt from reporting on the flow of any funds under the following conditions:

• If at the end of the period remaining balance of accounts does not exceed 600.000 RUB or other  currency equivalent;
• If during the year there were no payments to such an account ;
• If annual turnover does not exceed 600.000 RUB.

It is important to take into account the fact that soon reporting on the accounts opened in payment systems will be required, that is a significant disadvantage.
The amendments mentioned are expected to come into force from January 2020.