Recently, the Russian government has enacted the Federal Law No. 63-FZ of 15 April 15 “On Amendments to the Second Part of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation and Article 9 of the Federal Law”. The law slightly changes Article 217 of the Tax Code.

With this amendments, capital gains derived by a non-resident from the sale of Russian immovable property are exempt from personal income tax, provided that the minimum holding period of five years is fulfilled, irrespective of the time of acquisition of the property. Earlier, the exemption only applied to real estate acquired after 1 January 2016.