explainers

Here’s what Russians living abroad need to know about taxes, foreign bank accounts, and the 183-day rule that can change everything

Source: Meduza

The concepts of tax residency and residency for currency-control purposes are critical for anyone who has left Russia or divides their time between two countries. The obligations and risks depend on your circumstances: perhaps you have moved away for good but still rent out an apartment in Russia, live abroad but still earn a salary from a Russian company, or have no income in Russia but spent more than 183 days there in a year. Other situations are possible, too, and the rules can be confusing. How and when does your status change? How does tax residency differ from residency for currency-control purposes? Do the authorities keep track? And how can you avoid fines?

What is tax residency?

Tax residency determines the country where you must pay most of your taxes. Under Russian law, people who spend at least 183 days in Russia during a calendar year are considered Russian tax residents. Both the day of arrival and the day of departure count toward that total. Many other countries, particularly in Europe, follow a similar approach.

Russia’s tax service considers military personnel serving abroad, government officials, and employees of government agencies abroad to be residents regardless of how much time they spend in Russia. There are also exceptions to the 183-day rule. Time spent abroad for short-term medical treatment or study counts as time in Russia. The same applies to work at offshore oil and gas fields.

Why does this matter?

Tax residency determines how income is taxed and at what rates. Russians with this status pay Russian taxes on their worldwide income: for example, on both a salary earned in Russia and income from renting out a home abroad.

Nonresidents are required to pay Russian taxes only on income earned within the country. Their foreign income is not taxed in Russia.

Tax rates also depend on whether you are a Russian tax resident. Residents pay personal income tax at progressive rates ranging from 13% to 22%, while nonresidents pay 30%. Nonresidents are also ineligible for tax deductions.

How do I know whether I have become a tax resident of the country where I’m staying?

The main rule is the same: spending more than 183 days in the country. To avoid unwelcome tax surprises, keep careful track of the days you spend in each country, especially if you frequently travel between them. Counting days is the clearest benchmark, Anastasia Burakova, a lawyer who founded the human rights organization Kovcheg, told Meduza.

But many countries use additional criteria to determine tax residency. Spain, for example, considers the center of your economic interests: where your business’s clients and your workplace are located, where you are registered as a sole proprietor or have registered a business, and where your spouse and minor children live permanently. Germany looks primarily at your permanent place of residence. It is best to check each country’s rules separately, either on the local tax authority’s website or with a specialist adviser. If possible, do this as soon as you move.

If you have been living abroad for a long time but are still unsure of your tax status, it is best to clarify it now.

What happens when your tax residency changes?

Once your residency changes, you must pay taxes in another country under its laws. You will lose your right to tax deductions in Russia, but you will still owe Russian taxes on property and most income earned within Russia.

What else to keep in mind

The standard personal income tax rates apply both to staff working remotely and to contractors. An exception took effect on January 1, 2026, for “foreign agents,” whose earnings are taxed at 30% in all cases. Dividends paid to nonresidents are generally taxed at a flat rate of 15%.

How does tax residency differ from residency for currency-control purposes?

The two systems serve entirely different government purposes. Tax residency determines who must pay taxes, on what income, and at what rates. Currency regulation allows the authorities to monitor money moving across borders. Put simply, its purpose is to keep the ruble and the domestic foreign exchange market stable.

Residency is also determined differently under the two systems. Residency for currency-control purposes depends on citizenship or a residence permit, rather than the number of days spent in or outside the country. You can lose this status only by renouncing Russian citizenship or failing to renew your residence permit. As Burakova said, “someone with a Russian passport remains a Russian resident for currency-control purposes regardless of where they live.” Renouncing Russian citizenship, meanwhile, is neither simple nor inexpensive.

Like tax residency, residency for currency-control purposes imposes certain obligations and restrictions. Under the law “On Currency Regulation and Currency Control,” residents must notify the tax authorities of their foreign accounts and report transactions through them. For example, they must report opening a foreign account within a month.

In 2018, however, the concept of a “special resident” emerged: someone who is no longer a Russian tax resident but remains a resident for currency-control purposes. Special residents have fewer obligations: they do not have to report account openings or closings or account activity. Restrictions on currency transactions through foreign accounts do not apply to them either.

In practice, Burakova said, this means you will have to report foreign accounts only if you return to Russia for an extended stay and spend a total of more than 183 days there in a year. Again, you need to count your days carefully and be prepared to prove that you were outside the country. Keep documents that establish your travel dates and actual whereabouts, such as a long-term lease, an employment contract with a foreign employer, and airline boarding passes.

What happens if I spend more than 183 days in Russia and fail to report foreign accounts?

If you spend more than 183 days in Russia after returning to the country, the exemption from reporting foreign accounts no longer applies. You will have to notify the tax service even of accounts you previously did not report because of the exemption. The deadline is June 1 of the following calendar year. A report on account transactions may also be required by that date, unless you qualify for an exemption on other grounds.

Otherwise, you could face a fine under Article 15.25 of Russia’s Code of Administrative Offenses, which covers violations of currency laws and regulations. Failure to report an account carries a fine of up to 5,000 rubles for individuals and 800,000 to 1 million rubles for legal entities.

There is another risk: if someone fails to notify the tax service of a foreign account and money has moved through it, those transactions may be classified as illegal currency transactions. In that case, the person could be fined 20% to 40% of the value of the transactions, Burakova said. The statute of limitations for violations of currency laws is two years.

“After 2022, the tax authorities began keeping closer track of everything related to Russians’ taxes and the obligations that come with them,” Burakova said. For the most part, however, the government cannot obtain information from foreign banks, including details of an individual’s accounts. In practice, Burakova said, “they most often go after people who once reported their accounts themselves or transferred money to Russia and then stopped filing the required reports.” You could also face action at the Russian border if a foreign account is discovered during a phone inspection.

The tax service promises to determine tax residency automatically. What could that mean?

The Russian authorities have not yet introduced a system for determining tax residency automatically, but they want to. The Federal Tax Service considered requesting individual citizens’ passport information from the border service to establish their status.

The tax service had planned to automate the process by the end of 2025, but the system has yet to launch. According to the agency’s work plan, its introduction has been postponed until December 2027.

Tax adviser Artur Dulkarnaev wrote that this monitoring would benefit emigrants whose income information inspectors had received through data exchanges with other countries. These people would not have to file a tax return in Russia themselves. For those who have declared foreign accounts and companies, confirming residency and having the tax service review their documents would also become easier.

But automation has a downside: it would become much easier for the agency to identify people whose nonresident status has gone undetected and assess additional taxes at higher rates. Those who rent out homes in Russia or sell them before the minimum ownership period has passed would be at risk. In those cases, they would have to pay the state 30% of the money they receive.

Some types of income, however, are subject to more lenient rules. Remote employees of Russian companies will continue to pay the standard personal income tax rates of 13% to 22% regardless of their status, while dividends that nonresidents receive from Russian businesses will generally be taxed at 15%.

Entrepreneurs who live abroad but continue to operate under Russia’s patent-based tax system could also face problems. Living abroad does not, in itself, disqualify someone from this special tax regime. But the Federal Tax Service can check where the business actually operates. If inspectors prove that it operates outside the region that issued the tax patent, the patent will be revoked. The agency will then recalculate the taxes under a different system. If the sole proprietor is registered under the simplified tax system, that will usually mean paying 6% of income or 15% of income after deducting expenses. Otherwise, the general tax system applies, under which the personal income tax rate for nonresidents is generally 30%. The entrepreneur may also have to pay value-added tax.

Do I need to report taxes paid in other countries to the Russian authorities?

If you are not a Russian tax resident, you do not need to report taxes paid abroad. Nonresidents pay Russian taxes only on income earned within Russia.

Residents, however, must report their foreign income to the government. This information, along with the amounts already paid in taxes in the other country, goes on the 3-NDFL personal income tax return. It must be filed by April 30 of the following year. Foreign income is reported in Appendix 2. For the Federal Tax Service to credit taxes paid abroad, attach documents from the foreign tax authority along with a notarized Russian translation.

Depending on the country, your Russian tax bill can be reduced by the amount already paid abroad. This depends on whether a double taxation agreement is in force between the two countries. If there is an agreement, as with Turkey or the United Arab Emirates, you will need to pay only the difference in Russia. For example, if you paid 10% abroad but owe 13% in Russia, you will owe the Russian government just 3%.

If the double taxation agreement has been suspended, as with the United States, the United Kingdom, European Union countries, and other “unfriendly” states, you will have to pay Russian tax at the full rate in some cases. Russia does not apply preferential tax treatment in these circumstances, although there are exceptions to the rates on income paid by Russian organizations to foreign ones, particularly for aircraft leasing and certain types of maritime shipping.

How can the Russian tax service find out about my foreign income?

The Federal Tax Service has two options: automatic data exchanges with countries where this practice continues, and manual checks.

The latest list of countries with which Russia automatically exchanges tax information included 71 countries, among them Armenia, Argentina, Israel, and Thailand. Several European Union countries used to be on the list but were later removed. Kovcheg suggested that if you moved to the EU in 2021 or 2022, the Russian authorities most likely have no information about you.

That does not mean people who moved to Europe are entirely off the authorities’ radar. Tax officials have begun seeking information themselves. As early as late 2023, the newspaper Vedomosti reported that the Federal Tax Service was selectively demanding that some Russians provide foreign account statements, documents on currency transactions, and information on how many days they had spent outside Russia. In 2025, Forbes Russia reported that the agency had begun actively checking the incomes of Russians in the EU and Switzerland. According to the publication, tax service employees were demanding reports not only for 2024 but also pulling records for 2022 and 2023. Experts believe officials request documents when they have a lead — for example, if someone previously declared their foreign accounts themselves.

Judging by the tax service’s practice in 2023, people are given just a week to respond. If a request goes unanswered, the Federal Tax Service can impose a fine for failing to provide documents and later assess additional taxes at a higher rate, along with interest for each day the payment is overdue.

What should I do to avoid problems with tax authorities abroad?

Burakova recommends the following steps: