MOSCOW- Russian lawmakers on Tuesday voted to scrap a tax agreement with the Netherlands designed to avoid double taxation, formalising a process announced last year.
In March 2020, President Vladimir Putin proposed that a tax be levied on interest and dividend payments leaving the country to combat capital outflows as Russia faced the COVID-19 pandemic and low oil prices.
The Russian finance ministry held tax talks with Netherlands, where a number of large Russian companies are registered, to revise the tax agreement but these talks did not produce results.
"Taking into account that a compromise with the Netherlands has not been reached, the (tax) agreement is subject to denouncement," the lower house of parliament, or the Duma, said in an accompanying comment.
Russia has agreed similar tax deals with Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta.
(Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; additional reporting by Alexander Marrow and Darya Korsunskaya. Editing by Jane Merriman) ((andrey.ostroukh@thomsonreuters.com;))
