It is worth starting with the definition of the concept in question. So, a transaction passport is a binding document to be processed in the procedure for conducting currency transactions under the relevant agreement concluded between a non-resident and a resident. The amount of obligations under this contract is more than 50 thousand US dollars (in equivalent).
This can be both the agreement itself (contract), and projects and proposals regarding the conclusion of such agreements, preliminary agreements containing a number of important conditions (an offer, including its public type), projects listed in the existing Federal Law regarding currency regulation and control.
Foreign exchange operations are associated with settlements through resident accounts opened both at specially authorized banks and registered outside our country.
Legal entities - residents
These are recognized:
- legal entity formed in accordance with our legislation;
- Branches, representative offices, other divisions of legal entities located outside of Russia formed in accordance with our legislation.
Legal entities - non-residents
These include:
- legal entity formed in accordance with the laws of countries located outside our country;
- representative offices, branches, other separate structural units of legal entities that are located on our territory, and created on the basis of the legislation of foreign states.
Transaction passport: registration procedure, purpose
It is intended to provide information necessary for accounting, reporting, currency control of relevant operations. The transaction passport is issued in a certain order regulated by the Instruction of the Central Bank of Russia. For this client (resident) as a counterparty to the contract should apply to the relevant bank (its head office or branch), through which settlements will be carried out (part of them). He may grant a special right to draw up a passport for a currency transaction, conduct currency transactions that are related to settlements under a concluded agreement, to a branch.
For each individual contract, only 1 such passport is issued, except for those listed in the Federal Law.
Transaction passport: documents for registration
This will require:
- One copy of the passport of the foreign exchange transaction in one of the forms (1 or 2), which are given in the previously mentioned instructions of the Central Bank of Russia. It describes in detail the correct filling of the transaction passport.
- The contract itself (extract from it). If only a draft contract is submitted to the specially authorized bank, then within 15 calendar days after its final execution and signing it is required to present the contract to the bank.
- In a situation when the passport of the transaction of the signed agreement is not submitted to the bank one year after the date of transfer of the contract for which this document was drawn up, this financial institution informs the special currency control authority.
- Other documents, information serving as the basis for filling out the transaction passport form.
Familiarize yourself with this document visually help below the sample. The transaction passport can be filled out using the appropriate service of the bank, for which it is necessary to submit an official application, submit the required documents (information).
It is also worth noting that sometimes this financial institution is entitled to require other kinds of documents.If they are transferred to the bank on paper, then only after signing by persons who are authorized with the 1st, 2nd signature, previously stated in a special card, and certified by a seal. In another form (electronic), the documents are endorsed with a special electronic signature.
How long does this document take?
The client must submit to the bank the already completed form of the passport in question based on which obligation of the indicated in the contract (crediting, writing off currency, importing, exporting declared or undeclared goods, rendering services, performing a number of works) will arise first, including the time for checking these data financial and credit institution, no later than the terms specified in the aforementioned Instructions.
Next, the bank checks the availability of the necessary documents (information) that will be required for processing, re-issuance procedures, closing the existing transaction passport, within 3 calendar days from the date they are received from the client. Then, within a two-day period, the given financial and credit institution formulates and sends the result to its client, in particular, it is either a prepared transaction passport or reissued. A message containing a notification of its closure may also be transmitted.
The transaction passport is deemed completed if the bank assigned a special number to it, the date of this procedure and all necessary signatures are affixed.
Grounds for refusing the procedure for issuing a passport for a foreign exchange transaction and servicing an agreement
This includes:
- Inconsistency of the data indicated in the already completed form of the document under consideration with the information (information) contained in the concluded agreement (other documents) submitted by the resident, as well as due to the lack of reasons for issuing a transaction passport in their content.
- Violation of existing requirements regarding filling out a transaction passport form, regulated by the Instruction of the Central Bank of Russia.
- Failure by the resident to submit to the specially authorized bank the necessary documents (information) required to obtain this passport (providing an incomplete list of them).
In case of refusal of registration, the client has the right, upon completion of the elimination of the found problems, to again submit to the specially authorized bank the required list of documents (information) within the prescribed period.
Re-processing of the document in question
Changes (additions) to the existing terms and conditions of the agreement that affect the data contained in an already issued passport of a currency transaction (change of any other information indicated in it) obliges the client to contact the relevant bank and apply for reissue of the transaction passport. This is given no more than 15 calendar days from the date of amendment. Documents (other information) must be attached to it, confirming these adjustments.
If the information about the resident has been changed, then it is necessary to contact this financial institution within 30 calendar days from the date of making the required adjustments to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRIP).
In a situation where the conditions are specified in the contract regarding the possibility of its extension without signing additional. agreement, the bank is required to submit only a request for renewal of the existing transaction passport (a new date for the completion of contractual obligations must be put down). This must be done no later than 15 calendar days from the date of completion of the fulfillment of established obligations.
Procedure for closing a foreign exchange transaction passport
The reasons for this are as follows:
- The transaction passport is transferred from one authorized bank to another financial and credit institution due to a change in the bank serving the relevant contract.
- The client closed all of his current accounts with the bank where the document in question was drawn up.
- All obligations prescribed by the contract were fulfilled.
- The grounds that required the issuance of a passport for a foreign exchange transaction have been exhausted. For example, adjustments were made to the contract, as a result of which its total cost became less than 50 thousand US dollars, as well as the incorrect execution of this document.
- The transaction passport is also closed upon the assignment of the right under a corresponding agreement to another person, as well as upon the transfer of existing debt to a non-resident (resident).
- Contractual obligations were fulfilled or terminated.
It is worth noting that when submitting the necessary application to this financial institution, you will need to provide a list of documents that will confirm the reasons for closing the document in question. If you need to close several passports, then for each writing an application is not required, it is enough to draw up one. The Bank is entitled to independently decide on the closure of the passport of the foreign exchange transaction if 180 calendar days have passed since the end of the fulfillment of contractual obligations or from the date specified in this document (in case of default). This is the so-called term of the transaction passport.
If after it is closed, the client will still fulfill obligations, then the bank, based on the client’s application made in an arbitrary form, removes this document from the existing currency control dossier, as well as the bank control sheet, then continues to keep records on the fulfillment of contractual obligations based on a previously valid transaction passport.
Currency control
To date, all currency transactions should be carried out in strict accordance with our legislation. It is necessary to interpret this concept. Thus, currency control is the activity of specially authorized state bodies, focused on establishing compliance of ongoing currency transactions with current Russian legislation. It includes: checking the fulfillment by economic entities of obligations in foreign currency to the state, the validity of payments in foreign currency, the completeness, objectivity of the accounting process, reporting on currency transactions.
There is a close relationship between the concepts discussed in this article (transaction passport, currency control, residents, non-residents). So, the first is the document of the currency control in question, which contains the data required for its implementation from the agreement between the non-resident and the resident, providing for the export of goods from our territory, their payment in foreign currency or Russian.
As mentioned earlier, a transaction passport is issued in the event of a contract between an exporter (resident) and a non-resident through a specially authorized financial institution. For its execution, the exporter submits the contract to the bank where his account (currency) is located, the proceeds from the export of products will come to him. The resident and the bank draw up a transaction passport (the registration procedure was reviewed earlier).
Instruction of the Central Bank of Russia regarding currency regulation
In fact, this is a kind of synthesis of the previously existing Instructions (2004) and the Regulations of our Central Bank (2004) regarding the issue under consideration. The received version has greatly simplified the procedure for processing and transferring documents by exporters to a specially authorized bank.
The innovations that occurred in 2012 also affected the transaction passport. The instruction of the Central Bank of Russia contains a number of changes regarding the form and procedure for filling it. Also, adjustments were made to some references (on currency transactions, supporting documents), the codes of transactions with the currency, the mechanism of interaction between the authorized financial institution and the resident were revised.
As in the previous Instruction, a specially authorized bank appoints a responsible employee who has the right to carry out a number of actions as an agent of currency control on behalf of this financial and credit institution, including the endorsement of documents, certification with the appropriate seal used directly for these purposes.
Documents for currency control, sent by the bank to the resident in paper form, must be signed by the person responsible for this, and then certified by a corresponding seal on all pages. If they are sent electronically, then everywhere there should be an electronic signature of the designated responsible person (another bank employee) who has such a right.
In other words, the new Instruction assumes the possibility of a complete transition to an exclusively electronic document flow between an authorized financial institution and a resident (exporter). This significantly speeds up and simplifies the process of obtaining documents on currency control by bank customers. This is especially important for those participants of foreign economic activity who are quite far from a specially authorized bank.
Another important point that simplifies the workflow is the opportunity for a resident to grant by proxy the right to sign all documents of another entity that did not have the authority of the 1st, 2nd signature displayed on the corresponding card.
An important distinguishing feature of the new version of the Instruction from the previous one is its wider sphere of influence: except for residents acting as legal entities (not including credit organizations, Vnesheconombank state corporations) and individuals - individual entrepreneurs, and also individuals who are engaged in private practice in accordance with our legislation okay.
In other words, if the last of the aforementioned enter into a contract (foreign trade) on their own behalf, the amount of which exceeds $ 50,000, then they are required to open a transaction passport (currency control is carried out under the same conditions as before).
The new Instruction provided an opportunity for those residents who have separate branches to make payments directly from the accounts of the branches, if only they are all in the same specially authorized bank. The resident can now, in accordance with this document, delegate the existing obligation regarding the registration of the transaction passport to its branches.
Nuances of issuing a transaction passport
Previously, there were a number of controversial issues regarding the obligation of an authorized bank to open a document under consideration under commission agreements. In the new Instruction, it was clearly defined that under this the financial institution is obliged to open a passport for the transaction (currency). The coding of operations that are carried out in the framework of the above agreement, depends on a certain procedure for settlements between the commission agent and the principal.
In the case when information on the cost of goods (services) and separately on commission fees are separately highlighted in the contract under consideration, currency transactions that are related to settlements for products sold on the basis of this contract are indicated by special codes (10-11, 20-21) , and in the case of the payment of the due commission fee - with complicated codes (20500 - resident commission agent, 21500 - non-resident commission agent).
The commissioner's remuneration may not be allocated in a separate amount, then in order to encode these operations groups of codes such as 22 and 23 were developed.
The Instruction also states that under leasing agreements a passport of the transaction (currency) must be opened, moreover, this kind of contract was recognized as mixed, as a result of which the penultimate figure of this document will be nine.
Such transactions that involve the purchase and subsequent sale of fuels and lubricants without import / export to the Russian customs territory, provided that their total amount exceeds the established threshold (50 thousand US dollars), become passportable. This is worth paying attention, first of all, to enterprises using fuel cards (subsequently reimbursed by the expenses of the issuing party) outside the Russian customs territory.
With regard to loan agreements (loan contracts), the document under consideration is opened only in situations where their total value exceeds the established threshold.
It is worth noting the information that the passport of the currency transaction is required to be opened under such contracts that did not provide for this procedure before the new Instructions came into force, only if the date of the first currency transaction (the first execution of contractual obligations in another way) is later the moment of acquiring the eligibility of the above regulatory document.
If all operations (foreign exchange) are connected with the settlement of the transaction through a resident account held with a non-resident bank, then this participant draws up the appropriate passport in our Central Bank at the place of state registration. In a situation where only a part of foreign exchange transactions is performed, which are also associated with settlements under the agreement using resident accounts opened with a non-resident bank, then he draws up the document under consideration through settlement accounts with a specially authorized bank, within which other types of foreign exchange operations are carried out.
The existing procedure for opening a passport for a foreign exchange transaction in a special territorial institution of the Central Bank of Russia is completely identical to what is being done in a specially authorized bank.
