The CEO of “National Law Firm “Mitra”” Yury Mirzoyev told to “Vestnik” about development of market legal services in North Caucasus Federal District (NCFD), the business problems with tax authorities and creating the right understanding about legal services in society and business.
National Law Company “Mitra” in practice proved the effectiveness of actions of legal rules in North Caucasus. In the list of clients there are the biggest companies of fuel and energy sector, construction organizations, medical and spa institutes. The head of company Yury Mirzoev told “Vestnik” about the development of legal service market in North Caucasus Federal District, problems of business, linked with tax authorities, formation of insight of legal services for business and society.
Specific region
There are a lot of competent lawyers in the Caucasus, working in various branches of law. But as such, the legal services market is absent. It is difficult for large businesses to find experienced consultants who understand all the details of Russian legislation. For example, cases related to taxation are the most complex, as they relate to a narrow specialization. In addition, the respondent is the state - the opponent is serious and problematic.
The North Caucasus is a very specific region, in which many actions are based on centuries-old traditions and features of the mentality. Nevertheless, the legal branch created here is functioning quite successfully. This fact causes great surprise among our fellow lawyers from other regions of Russia. And now, with our activities, we are trying to change for the better the public's view of the possibility of achieving justice in the Caucasus by legal methods.
Narrowly focused specialists
We began our work under the «Mitra» brand in 2012. For ourselves, we outlined a specific range of activities: these are cases of taxes and real estate, antimonopoly and civil disputes. Our specialists are engaged in legal support of the activities of organizations, and also help in solving specific problems. Most of them previously worked in the largest companies in our region and were key employees, so they have a lot of experience in resolving the biggest disputes in the region.
Among the clients of «Mitra» are such large companies as Sevkavkazenergo, Dagestan Energy Sales Company, Kabbalkenergo, Karachaevo-Cherkesskenergo, Daggaz, Independent Power Sales Company of Krasnodar Region, IDGC of the North Caucasus and many others. One of the last complicated cases, which we had to deal with, was challenging the decision based on the results of the on-site tax audit for the amount of additional charges of about 1 billion rubles. At that time, the enterprise, which had such debts for taxes, was threatened with bankruptcy. Lawyers of "Mitra" literally saved him: after three won instances of the debt remained just over 3 million rubles.
Science and law
Creating our business, we set ourselves an important task - to popularize law. In the framework of this activity, several large round tables were held, where the leading lawyers of Russia were invited. One of them, dedicated to innovations in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, was attended by drafters of the bill Andrey Egorov and Roman Bevzenko. They gave a lecture on changes in civil law. Such a detailed explanation of legislative novels by the direct authors was given for the first time in the Caucasus and aroused great interest of all participants of the event.
Another important topic for today was discussed at the round table, which took place in January this year. Despite the fact that the concept of unreasonable tax benefit was formed by judicial practice as far back as 2006, it has become especially relevant recently. In the current economic situation and the strengthening of tax administration, it became simply necessary to ensure the unity of the legal understanding of the "judicial doctrine of unreasonable tax benefits" from the tax authorities, taxpayers and judges.
The practice shows
Estimating the current situation in the legal services market, I can cite statistics on tax disputes: in 2007, taxpayers won about 75% of all the additional taxes assessed in arbitration courts, and according to the latest information provided by the Federal Tax Service, in 2014 Only 22% were allowed in favor of taxpayers. There are several explanations for this. First, the level of professionalism of tax officials has increased. Secondly, some of the disputes were resolved in favor of the taxpayer at pre-litigation stage by higher tax authorities. And thirdly, the difficult economic situation in the country prompts the judiciary in any disputed cases to make decisions in favor of the budget. Of course, it became more difficult for us to work. Previously, we practically didn`t lose tax disputes - they won about 90% of the disputed sums. Now the figures have become more modest to win the case, you have to be two or three heads stronger than your opponent. But we are not scared as professionals, but on the contrary - it stimulates to further development.
Outside of North Caucasus Federal District
"Today, the specialists of the company "Mitra" work not only in the North Caucasus and the South of Russia, but also provide legal services to customers from other regions of Russia. Taking into account this fact, we decided not to limit ourselves to one location and open offices in Krasnodar and Moscow. In the city of Krasnodar, we opened an office last year, in this - we plan to open in the capital. I am convinced that such an extension will help the integration of the Caucasus into the legal field of the country and will help to dispel the myth about it as a region in which the principle of the rule of law is widely ignored.
The materials were taken from web-site “Vestnik North Caucasus”
