What will change in laws in October 2023

Changes regarding conscript service come into force

Fines are increasing for failure to appear at the military registration and enlistment office when summoned and failure to provide information about relocation, change in marital status, and so on. And several times. For example, for failure to appear on a summons you will now be fined not 500–3,000 rubles, but 10–30 thousand.

The responsibility of employers for reluctant cooperation with military registration and enlistment offices has also been tightened. Fines have become many times larger, so now companies are more likely to comply with the law, even if they have no special motivation.

You can read more about the innovations regarding recruitment in a separate text.

The increased duty-free import threshold will be valid until April 1

In April 2022, the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission temporarily increased the limits on which duties are not paid when ordering goods by mail or through a carrier. Then this decision was periodically extended -

this time until April 1, 2024.

Parcels from abroad costing up to 1,000 euros and weighing up to 31 kg will not be subject to duty. The same amount can be transported across the border by land transport. You will have to pay 15% of the excess (but not less than 2 euros per 1 kg) in the first case and 30% (but not less than 4 euros per 1 kg) in the second.

Burgers may become more expensive

In Russia there is three tax rates for added value. For some services and goods, such as commuter transport, it is 0%. But basically it is 10 or 20% of the price of the product or service. A reduced rate of 10% applies to socially significant products such as bread, milk, meat, and so on. For the rest, VAT is twice as high.

But there are always gray areas. Thus, hamburgers, cheeseburgers and other sandwiches could be sold as bakery products and pay VAT of 10%. Starting October 1, the tax office is closing this shop. Similar products must be taxed VAT at 20%. Which can, in turn, motivate sellers to increase the price of such products or reduce portion sizes.

A new citizenship law has appeared

Entered into force new citizenship law. In particular, it provides for simplified acquisition of citizenship for more than twenty categories of persons. These are citizens of the former USSR, their children, people who have close relatives living in the Russian Federation. At the same time, foreign spouses will be able to obtain a simplified red passport only if they have a common child. This is done in order to eliminate the practice of confinement fictitious marriages.

In addition, such a concept as termination of Russian citizenship is being introduced - instead of “a decision on admission to Russian citizenship.” The old concept by default applied only to those who acquired citizenship, and did not acquire it by birth. However, despite the new wording, the Constitution prohibits depriving the latter of citizenship. That is, the changes should affect those who became citizens of the Russian Federation on other grounds.

Reasons for terminating citizenship may include certain crimes or a threat to the national security of the country, as well as providing false information. In addition, anyone can renounce citizenship voluntarily.

Banks may increase down payments on mortgages

Central Bank increases bonuses to risk ratios for mortgage loans. The essence of the innovation is that it will be less profitable for banks to provide mortgages with a low down payment. This means that they can increase requirements for borrowers in this aspect.

Two-factor identification at State Services will become mandatory (but this is not certain)

Ministry of Digital Development announced, that from October 1, two-factor identification at State Services will become mandatory. This means that just entering a password will not be enough. You need an additional code, which will be sent via SMS or through a special TOTP application (available here options), it is also possible to use biometrics to log in. Without this, go to "Public services" will not work. The innovation concerns the web version of the site and newly installed applications. If the application was already on your smartphone, there will be no problems logging in.

But there is a nuance. The draft resolution has not yet been reviewed by the government and has not been published. So in the same announcement from the Ministry of Digital Development it is clarified that the measure will take effect only after the publication of the document. After this, the user will have the right to log in once only with a password, during which two-factor authentication will need to be installed. They won't let me in a second time.

The exact dates are not yet known. It is likely that this will happen in October, but not necessarily.