the number of foreign accounts of Russians increased by 2.6 times in 2022

The number of foreign accounts of Russians known to the Federal Tax Service (FTS) increased by 164% in 2022 to one million eight hundred thousand. RBC writes about this with reference to the presentation “Results of the activities of the Federal Tax Service of Russia”.

According to the document, the number of owners of such accounts increased by 70% to 539 thousand. As noted by RBC, the presentation does not specify which hour was taken as the basis for comparison, but by default it should be the previous hour.

The Federal Tax Service receives data as part of the automatic exchange of information with foreign countries. There are 85 states and 11 territories in the official list of jurisdictions with which the exchange takes place. There are 102 jurisdictions in the list of countries that do not exchange financial information with Russia.

After the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the introduction of Western sanctions, which limited or in some cases prohibited financial interaction with Moscow, the exchange of tax information with foreign countries became more complicated. The Federal Tax Service also stated that the exchange was “difficult” in the last two years.

The last time the Federal Tax Service disclosed information about the data received on the foreign accounts of Russians was in 2021. Then the service was aware of 700,000 accounts worth more than 13 trillion rubles belonging to 400,000 Russians. In October 2023, Deputy Head of the Federal Tax Service, Yulia Shepeleva, spoke about the increase in the number of such accounts by 30% by 2020, but did not give absolute values.

The increase in foreign accounts of Russians in 2022 is most likely due to the fact that Russian citizens actively sought an alternative replacement for those who left due to Visa and Mastercard sanctions in friendly countries for payments during trips abroad, believes B1 partner Maria Frolova.

According to the Central Bank, in 2022, Russians took a record one and a half trillion rubles abroad. At the beginning of 2024, according to Central Bank statistics, Russians held the equivalent of 6.7 trillion rubles abroad. However, as stated in the Central Bank, this amount does not show the real amount of money in the foreign accounts of Russians, as the regulator does not track where these funds are directed – for parallel import purchases or daily expenses of those who have gone abroad.