Russia to combine registers of CSOs that receive State support

04.05.2021

The Russian President has approved legislation that will bring together registers of CSOs that receive State support. The signed legislative text was posted on the government’s official legal information website on 30 April.

The first register is for SONGOs who have received Presidential Grants, subsidies or other grants under federal and regional programmes since 2017, and the other for CSOs that have been most affected by the pandemic.

The legislation amends Part 2 of Article 265 of the Russian Federation Tax Code. The law’s Explanatory Note states that CSOs have already received preferences, thus dispensing with the need for two separate registers. The legislation’s authors believe that creating a consolidated register is necessary to improve the effectiveness of the government’s CSO support measures, as well as tax incentives.

“This is a very important landmark event for the Third Sector. In fact, we have become co-authors and witnesses to a new institution-based approach to State support for the not-for-profit sector, as well as having a socially-oriented relationship between the authorities and CSOs”, said Elena Topoleva, Chair of the Public Chamber Commission for the Development of the Non-Profit Sector and Support to CSOs.

On 23 April, the Bill was approved at third reading by the State Duma and will enter into force within one month of its official publication date, but not before the first day of the new income tax year.

History behind the registers

In 2020, the Federation’s Ministry for Economic Development published two registers for CSOs eligible for State support during the pandemic.

On 25 June last year during a meeting involving Vladimir Putin and the new membership of the Federation’s Public Chamber, Natalya Kiryukhina, a member of the Sevastopol Public Chamber and Chair of Trustees of the Sevastopol-based organisation Special Children, suggested to the Russian President that work be put in hand to create a single register that would include organisations from both lists overseen by the Ministry.

It is anticipated that after both lists have been consolidated, those CSOs that are not already included on the combined list will be able to be so. The authors of the legislation want to give the Russian government the ability to establish additional criteria for including CSOs on the consolidated register.

Source: https://www.asi.org.ru/news/2021/05/04/v-rossii-obedinyat-reestry-nko-poluchayushhih-gospodderzhku/