The Federal Tax Service said March 17, 2006 that Yukos [RTS: YUKO] owed 108 billion rubles ($3.99 billion) in back taxes for 2004, saying the company avoided taxes by using its subsidiaries and lower transfer pricing schemes in oil deals.
Yukos appealed the decision June 1, 2006. On June 14, a court considering Yukos' bankruptcy case ruled the 2004 tax claim should be included in the list of creditors' claims to the embattled oil company, which stood at 353.8 billion rubles ($13.2 billion) overall. The judge said the court found the 2004 claim legitimate.
The debt and interest penalty have been charged from Yukos in an extra-judicial manner, but fines, which total over 42 billion rubles ($1.57 billion), are to be charged via the arbitration court.
But the Arbitration Court of Appeals cut the claim to a total of 311.8 billion rubles ($11.63 billion), saying a separate trial should look into the legitimacy of additional tax claims.
Yukos, once Russia's largest oil company, was declared bankrupt August 1 after three years of litigation with tax authorities. Eduard Rebgun, formerly the Yukos temporary manager, was appointed the bankruptcy receiver.
Creditors of the Yukos group, whose founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky is serving an eight-year prison term after being convicted for fraud in May 2005, include Rosneft-owned former production unit Yuganskneftegaz, the Federal Tax Service, Rosneft and more than 20 other companies.
Also on Tuesday, the Moscow Arbitration Court dropped a $8.5 billion claim for damages from Yuganskneftegaz, sold at a December 2004 auction to help pay the parent company's massive tax bills.
Yuganskneftegaz, now owned by the largely state-owned Rosneft Oil Company, lodged the suit in March 2005, claiming more than 304 billion rubles ($11.4 billion) in damages, including 163 billion rubles ($6.1 billion) for losses sustained as a result of Yukos's lower transfer pricing schemes in oil deals in 1999-2003. Later, a court increased the amount to 226 billion rubles ($8.46 billion).
Yugansk was seeking the remainder of the sum, 141 billion rubles ($5.28 billion), to compensate for losses arising from the settlement of tax arrears.
