Chapter 22. Excise Taxes

Article 179. Taxpayers

1. The following shall be defined as taxpayers of the excise tax (further in the present Chapter referred to as - the "taxpayers"):

1) organizations;

2) individual businessmen;

3) persons recognized as taxpayers in connection with the movement of goods across the customs border of the Russian Federation shall be defined according to the customs code of the Russian Federation.

2. Organizations and other persons named in the present Article shall be defined as taxpayers if they perform operations taxable under the present Chapter.

Article 179.1. Certificates on the Registration of the Person, Performing Transactions with Oil Products

1. Certificates on the registration of a person, performing transactions with oil products (hereinafter referred to as the certificates), shall be issued to the tax payers, engaged in the following kinds of activity:

- production of oil products - the certificate for the production;

- wholesale realization of oil products - the certificate for the wholesale realization;

- the wholesale and retail realization of oil products the certificate for the whole and the retail realization;

- the retail realization of oil products - the certificate for the retail realization.

2. In the certificate shall be pointed out:

- the name of the body, which has issued the certificate;

- the name (the surname, name and patronymic), the place of location (the place of residence) of the tax payer and the address (the place of the actual activity) of the tax payer's performance of the kinds of activity, listed in Item 1 of the present Article;

- the identification number of the organization or of the individual businessman (the INN in the Russian text), the kind (kinds) and the name (names) of oil products;

- the kind of activity and the names of oil products;

- the place of location and the volumes of production capacities;

- the place of location and the volumes of capacities for the storage of oil products;

- the place of location and the quantity of stationary fuel-distribution columns;

- the term of the certificate's validity;

- conditions for the performance of the above-mentioned kinds of activity;

- the registration number of the certificate and the date of its issue.

3. The procedure for the issue of the certificate shall be determined by the Ministry of Taxation of the Russian Federation.

4. Handing over the certificate to another tax payer is prohibited. The tax payers, who have been granted the certificate not in conformity with the procedure, laid down in the present Article, shall be equated for the purposes of the present Chapter to the tax payers, possessing no certificate.

5. The certificates shall be issued, if the following conditions are observed:

1) the certificate for the production - if the tax payer owns the capacities for the production, storage and release of oil products;

2) the certificate for the wholesale realization - if the tax payer possesses the capacities for the storage and the release of oil products;

3) the certificate for the wholesale and the retail realization - if the tax payer possesses the capacities for the storage and the release of oil products, as well as fuel-distribution columns;

4) the certificate for the retail realization - if the tax payer possesses the capacities for the storage and the release of oil products from stationary fuel-distribution columns.

To obtain the certificate, the tax payer shall submit to the tax body information on his possession of the necessary premises and equipment, and the copies of the documents, confirming the tax payer's right to the possession, use and disposal of the above-said property. The tax body is obliged to issue the certificate not later than in 30 days as from the moment of the tax payer filing an application and submitting the above-mentioned documents.

The tax payer shall be held responsible for submitting unauthentic information in conformity with the legislation of the Russian Federation. In case of the refusal in the issue of the certificate, the tax body is obliged to notify to this effect the tax payer, who has applied for the issue of the certificate. The notification shall be directed to the tax payer in writing with an indication of the reasons behind the refusal.

6. The tax bodies shall suspend the validity of the certificate or shall cancel it in the following cases:

- non-submitting by the tax payer of the corresponding application;

- non-fulfilment by the tax payer of the written instructions of the Ministry of Taxation of the Russian Federation or of its territorial bodies, including of the workers of the tax bodies;

- the tax payer having an indebtedness on the payment of excise duties (not taking into account the postponed payments) for over three months (at the presentation of the territorial tax bodies);

- the tax payer non-presenting within the fixed term of an application for the reformalization of the certificate in accordance with Item 5 of the present Article;

- the tax payer's performance of settlements for the realization of oil products in cash above the fixed ultimate size of settlements in cash in the Russian Federation between legal entities;

- non-presentation by the tax payer within three consecutive tax periods of the invoices, which are to be submitted by the tax payers to the tax bodies in accordance with Article 201 of the present Code;

- the use of technological equipment for the production, storage and realization of oil products, which is not supplied with control devices for recording their volumes, or of that with the wrecked control and recording-measuring appliances, and violations in the operation and in the terms for the operation of the control and of the recording and measuring equipment, mounted on the technological equipment;

- handing over by the tax payer of the certificate, issued in accordance with the procedure, established by the present Article, to another person;

- the reorganization of the legal entity, the change of its name or of the place of its location (the change of the surname, name and patronymic, or of the place of residence of the individual businessman), and also in case of the liquidation of the legal entity (of the termination of the validity of the certificate on the state registration in the capacity of an individual businessman);

- the tax payer's changing the kinds of activity, pointed out in Item 1 of the present Article, or reducing the volumes of the capacities for the storage of oil products, or reducing the number of stationary fuel-distribution columns.

7. In the cases, envisaged in Item 6 of the present Article, as well as if the tax payer loses the certificate, he has the right to file an application within a 15-day term for obtaining a new certificate.

8. The tax body, which has issued the certificate, is obliged to notify the corresponding tax payer about the suspension of the validity, or about the cancellation of the corresponding certificate.

Article 180. Features of Execution of the Duties of Taxpayer Within the Framework of a Contract of Simple Partnership (Contract on Joint Activity)

1. Taxpayers - parties to a contract of simple partnership (contract on joint activity) shall bear the joint and several liability on bearing the responsibility on payment of tax calculated according to the present Chapter.

2. For the purposes of the present Chapter, it shall be established that the person managing the business of the simple partnership (of the contract on joint activity) shall be named as the person discharging the obligation to calculate and pay the entire amount of excise tax computed under operations defined as an item of taxation according to the present Chapter and performed within the framework of a simple partnership contract (contract on joint activity). In case the simple partnership (contract on joint activity) is managed jointly by all participants of the simple partnership (contract on joint activity), the parties to the contract of simple partnership (contract on joint activity) shall independently name a participant discharging the obligation in the calculation and payment of the entire amount of excise tax under operations defined as the item of taxation according to the present Chapter and performed within the framework of the simple partnership contract (contract on joint activity).

Said person shall have all rights and discharge the taxpayer obligations stipulated by the present Code concerning the aforesaid amount of excise tax.

No later than on the day of performance of the first operation, defined as an item of taxation according to the present Chapter, said person shall to notify a tax body of his having discharged his duty as a taxpayer within the framework of a general partnership agreement (joint activity agreement).

3. In case the obligation to pay the excise tax is duly performed in full by the person discharging the obligation to pay the excise tax within the framework of the simple partnership (the contract on joint activity) according to Item 2 of the present Article, the obligation to pay the excise tax by other parties to contract of a simple partnership (contract on joint activity) shall be considered fulfilled.

Article 181. Excisable Goods and Excisable Mineral Raw Materials

1. Excisable goods shall be defined as follows:

1) ethyl alcohol made of all types of raw materials, except for brandy alcohol;

2) alcohol containing products (solutions, emulsion, suspension and other types of products in liquid form with a volumetric share of ethyl alcohol over 9 per cent.

For the purposes of the present Chapter, the following alcohol containing goods shall not be defined as excisable products:

medical, treatment-and-preventive, diagnostic preparations that were granted state registration with the authorized federal body of executive power and entered into the State Register of drugs and articles of medical use, medicinal, treatment-and-preventive drugs (including homeopathic drugs) produced by chemist organizations under individual recipes and requests of medical organizations and dispensed in bottles in compliance with the requirements of state standards concerning medicines (pharmacopoeia assets) endorsed by the authorized federal executive body;

drugs of veterinary use that were granted state registration with the authorized federal body of executive power and entered into the State Register of the registered veterinary drugs developed for application in animal industries on the territory of the Russian Federation bottled in tare not more than 100 ml;

perfume and cosmetics products that were granted state registration in the authorized federal bodies of executive power and dispensed in tare not more than 270 ml;

waste materials subject to further processing and/or use for technical purposes which are byproducts of production of ethyl alcohol made of food raw material, of vodka articles, liqueur and vodka articles, the former conforming to the reference documentation approved (agreed) by a federal body of executive power and entered into the State Register of ethyl alcohol made of food raw materials, alcoholic and alcohol containing products in the Russian Federation;

goods of household use in metal aerosol tare;

3) alcoholic products (drinkable alcohol, vodka, liqueur and vodka articles, cognacs, wine and other food products containing a volumetric share of ethyl alcohol more than 1.5 per cent, except for wine materials);

4) beer;

5) tobacco products;

6) jewelry.

For the purposes of the present Chapter, jewelry shall be defined as articles made of precious metals and their alloys and/or gems and/or artificially grown pearls, used as decorations, household articles and (or) for decorative and other purposes, as well as for ceremonies and rites, memorable, jubilee and other badges and medals.

State awards, medals, insignia articles shall not be defined as jewelry which status is defined by laws of the Russian Federation or decrees of the President of the Russian Federation, coins having the status of legal tender and which were officially issued, religious use articles (safe for wedding rings) intended for the use in religious rites and ceremonies and jewelry haberdashery, articles from non-precious metals and alloys in the manufacture of which sliver-containing soldering materials have been used and also folk art craft articles manufactured with the use of gold- containing (silver-containing) paints and/or threads;

7) cars and motorcycles featuring engine power rating over 112.5 kW (150 h.p.);

8) petrol;

9) diesel fuel;

10) motor oil for diesel and/or carburetor (injector) engines.

2. Excisable mineral raw materials shall be defined as follows:

1) natural gas.

For the purposes of the present chapter stripped dry gas and oil (casing-head) gas shall be deemed natural gas after they have been processed.

Article 182. The Item of Taxation

1. The following operations shall be defined as items of taxation:

1) sale, by persons, on the territory of the Russian Federation of excisable goods produced by them, including the sale of subjects of pledge and transfer of excisable goods under a compensation agreement or novation.

For the purposes of the present Chapter, the conveyance of title to excisable goods and/or excisable mineral raw materials by a person to another person for a consideration and/or on a gratuitous basis, and also their use as wages in kind shall be defined as sale of excisable goods and/or excisable mineral raw materials;

2) sale by organizations from excise warehouses of alcoholic products bought from manufacturers of said products acting as taxpayers or from excise warehouses of other organizations.

The sale of alcoholic products from a excise warehouse of an wholesale organization to an excise warehouse of another wholesale organization shall not be recognized as an item of taxation;

3) sale by persons of confiscated and/or ownerless excisable goods, excisable goods which were refused in favour of the state and which are to be converted into state- and/or municipal property handed over to the former on the basis of sentences or decisions of courts, arbitration courts or other state bodies authorized thereto;

4) excisable goods produced by a person from on commission raw material (materials) and transferred to the territory of the Russian Federation by him to the owner of said raw material (materials) or other persons, including the receipt of said excisable goods into ownership on account of payment of services in the production of excisable goods from raw materials made on commission (materials);

5) produced excisable goods transferred within a unit of an organization for further production of non-excisable goods, except for operations named in Subitems 2, 3 of Item 1 of Article 183 of the present Code;

6) excisable goods produced by persons for own needs and transferred on the territory of the Russian Federation;

7) transfer, by persons, of excisable goods produced by them into the charter (investment) capital of organizations, into share funds of co-operatives, and also as instalments under a contract of a simple partnership (contract on joint activity) on the territory of the Russian Federation;

8) transfer on the territory of the Russian Federation by an organization (business company or partnership) of excisable goods produced by it to its participant (his assignee or heir) in case of his exit from the organization (business company or partnership), and also the transfer of excisable goods effected within the framework of a simple partnership contract (contract on joint activity) to a participant (his assignee or heir) into said agreement to separate his share from assets owned jointly by parties to an agreement, or in case of division of such assets;

9) transfer of produced excisable goods for processing on commission basis;

10) import of excisable goods to the customs territory of the Russian Federation;

11) primary sale of excisable goods originating and imported to the territory of the Russian Federation from territories of member states of the Customs Union without customs registration (if there are agreements on the single customs space);

12) sale of natural gas from the territory of the Russian Federation;

13) sale and/or transfer, including that on a gratuitous basis, of natural gas to the territory of the Russian Federation to gas distribution organizations or direct (passing gas distributing organization) to end users using natural gas as fuel and/or raw material except the transactions specified in Subitems 8 -12 Item 1 Article 183 of the present Code;

14) transfer of natural gas for own use except the transactions specified in Subitem 9 Item 1 Article 183 of the present Code;

15) transfer of natural gas for industrial processing on commission basis and/or within the structure of an organization to manufacture other types of products except the transactions specified in Subitem 12 Item 1 Article 183 of the present Code;

16) transfer of natural gas as a contribution to the charter (investment) capital, contribution under a simple partnership contract (contract on joint activity), fixed contributions to the share funds of co-operatives.

2. Operations listed in Subitems 12 - 16 of Item 1 of the present Article shall be defined as items of taxation if excisable kinds of mineral raw material are extracted (are produced) on the territory of the Russian Federation, its continental shelf and/or its exclusive economic area.

3. For the purposes of the present chapter the "production" shall include in particular the bottling of excisable goods effected as a part of the general process of production of such goods in keeping with state standards and/or other regulatory technical documentation governing the process of production of the said goods and they shall be endorsed by authorised federal executive bodies and also any types of blending of goods in storage and sale places (except for public catering organisations) resulting in an excisable good.

4. In the event of reorganization of an organization, the right and the obligation to pay excise tax shall be transferred to its assignee.