1.3m legal entities to face liquidation in Russia

About 1.3m legal entities will be liquidated in Russia within 2.5 years, Deputy Tax Minister Mikhail Mishustin declared at a news conference. He pointed out that in accordance with the law on state registration of legal entities, all organizations were to submit data to tax agencies before January 1, 2003 so as to be included in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. According to him, about 1.6m legal entities had failed to meet that deadline. The Tax Ministry reckons that about 80% of them are "dead companies," which conduct no operations and submit no reports to tax agencies. If a company provides respective data after January 1, 2003, a fine will be imposed on it, but it is likely to be allowed to continue its business, Mishustin pointed out.

Tax agencies are now preparing lists of legal entities that have not submitted data to the Tax Ministry. These lists will be displayed on web sites of the regional departments of the Tax Ministry. According to the deputy minister, the final stage of this work will comprise preparation of petitions on liquidation of these legal entities, which is to be finished by July 1, 2003. It is planned to complete the process of liquidation of these organizations over 2.5 years after that date.