Support The Moscow Times!

Rights Group That Fought Tax Service Gets Big Tax Bill

A human rights group in Tatarstan has been hit with a large back tax claim on foreign grants after it helped a nongovernmental organization win a lawsuit over a similar claim by tax authorities.

Agora, a Kazan-based interregional association of Russian human rights groups, was notified by district tax officials that it owed 670,000 rubles ($22,440) in taxes for 2006, 2007 and 2008 on grants from the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, Agora’s web site

Openinform.ru said Monday.

Under Russian law, charity donations from foreign organizations are not liable for taxes on income, Agora’s head Pavel Chikov said in a statement on the web site.

However, there is a loophole saying the foreign organizations must be on a government list of foreign charities to be able to provide nontaxable grants, Chikov said.

Agora’s lawyers helped Planet of Hopes, a social and environmental nongovernmental group, win three lawsuits demanding back taxes on grants from foreign sponsors.

Agora’s lawyers also have handled other clients whose cases pitted them against the authorities, including Lyudmila Kuzmina of Golos, an independent group monitoring elections; Novaya Gazeta’s Samara editor Sergei Kurt-Adzhiyev; and blogger Dmitry Solovyov. Agora also has represented relatives of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, who was shot dead in central Moscow in January.

Sign up for our free weekly newsletter

Our weekly newsletter contains a hand-picked selection of news, features, analysiss and more from The Moscow Times. You will receive it in your mailbox every Friday. Never miss the latest news from Russia. Preview
Subscribers agree to the Privacy Policy

A Message from The Moscow Times:

Dear readers,

We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."

These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.

We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.

Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.

By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.

Once
Monthly
Annual
Continue
paiment methods
Not ready to support today?
Remind me later.

Read more