Companies Mail.Ru Group will not refund VAT for the sale of in-game goods
The Arbitration Court of the Moscow District rejected the complaint of Mail LLC.ru games” to the inspection of the Federal Tax Service of Russia No. 14. The company tried to challenge the decision not to refund the value added tax (VAT) paid for the sale of in-game goods. This is reported by the Vedomosti resource with reference to the materials of the court.
Recall the essence of the conflict: a division of the holding Mail.ru Group LLC “Mail.ru Games” wanted to take advantage of the VAT benefit, which has been provided for by Article 149 of the Tax Code of Russia since 2008. It states that paid digital products are not subject to value-added tax.
“Mail.ru Games insisted that in-game purchases fall under this benefit: if users get access to them for a fee, it means that they are an extended version of the game. Based on this, the company tried to return the value-added tax already paid. It amounted to 276.3 million rubles for the first quarter of 2013 and 184 million rubles for the second.
The tax service claimed that the benefit applies only to downloading the game, and the items and currency purchased by the user are additional services.
The court sided with the tax service. The verdict reads: users after purchasing things inside the game use the same software as before. So, there is no sale of software, and “Mail.ru Games will not receive VAT back.
It should be noted that the current court decision concerns taxes that the company paid for the second quarter of 2013, that is, 184 million rubles. Now the Federal Tax Service is awaiting a decision on taxes for the first quarter of 2013.
A source: http://www.vedomosti.ru
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