Russia: Tax authorities claim more than $14 million euros from Baltika

Baltika, Russias major brewery has been hit with back-tax claims of more than $14 million euros for 2003 and 2004, RIA Novosti announced on March 16. The company's IFRS financial report said that the Federal Tax Service made the tax claim in 2005 after checks on tax payments for the fourth quarter of 2003 and the first nine months of 2004.

"The total sum of unpaid taxes, according to the tax inspection document, was 11.789 million euros, plus a fine of 20% of the unpaid taxes," the company said. Most of the back taxes (9.63 million plus penalties) are in connection with the leasing.

"The tax authorities claim that the part of leasing expenditure relating to the purchase of leased equipment is considered, for the purposes of tax calculations, only after the equipment has become the company's property. Correspondingly, the VAT claim on these leasing expenses is also only possible after the specified date," the report said.

Earlier Thursday, Russia's leading brewery said it posted sales growth of 22.2% in 2005, year on year. The company sold 22.4 hectoliters of beer in 2005, year-on-year growth of 13.1%. Sales totaled 977.2 mln euros while gross income grew 33.1% year on year, to 507.5 million euros. Exports in 2005 totaled 13.9 mln deciliters, year-on-year growth of 23%.

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