The State Duma approved in the first reading the payment of VAT by the buyer when selling copper semi-finished products

As Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy Sergei Altukhov explained, the purpose of the bill is to bring copper scrap processors out of the shadows and increase the efficiency of VAT collection on transactions for the sale of copper semi-finished products
MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. The State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill that provides for the imposition of the obligation to pay VAT on the sale of copper semi-finished products on buyers of such semi-finished products. The document was initiated by a group of deputies from the LDPR faction.
The bill provides that when copper semi-finished products are sold by organizations and individual entrepreneurs not included in the list of manufacturers of cable and wire products or the list of manufacturers of copper semi-finished products, the tax base for VAT is determined by tax agents, which are their buyers (recipients) included in the list of manufacturers of cable and wire products.
As Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy Sergei Altukhov explained, the purpose of the bill is to bring copper scrap processors out of the shadows and improve the efficiency of VAT collection on transactions for the sale of copper semi-finished products. “A similar mechanism has proven itself well with other categories of goods. Also, buyers of animal skins, ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal, secondary aluminum and its alloys, waste paper have been paying VAT as tax agents since 2018,” the deputy recalled. The change from tax agency to transactions for the purchase of copper semi-finished products will reduce the number of cases of VAT evasion by unscrupulous taxpayers – sellers of copper semi-finished products, he believes. “This, in turn, will eliminate the risks of tax disputes between manufacturers of cable and wire products and tax authorities,” Altukhov noted.