The advertising duty: detailed calculation and payment rules proposed

Payers of the advertising duty are advertising distributors, advertising system operators, intermediaries and agents which:

• have concluded an agreement with an advertiser or
• have entered into an agreement with an agent that has an existing agreement with an advertiser or other agents..

The main principle is that there is one payer in the service delivery chain:

• If the advertising duty is paid by one of the participants in the contractual chain that work directly with the advertiser, such as an advertising distributor / an advertising system operator / an intermediary, then the other participants in the contractual chain do not pay.

• If the advertising duty is paid by an agent, it pays the duty only on its own agency fee.  However, the advertising distributor / advertising system operator / other intermediaries remain liable to pay the duty. In this case, the question remains of how, in a contractual chain in which agents are involved, the duty is to be paid by other participants in the chain that work directly with the advertiser. 

  However, an agent has the right to pay the advertising duty in full, in which case all the other participants in the contractual chain are exempt from paying the duty.

Thus, the approach to the payment of the advertising duty in relation to each item of distributed advertising depends on the contractual chain and the choice of payer made by the transacting parties.

The base for the calculation of the advertising duty at the rate of 3% is calculated on the following amounts:

1. income received by advertising distributors, advertising system operators and intermediaries from Internet advertising services provided under an agreement with an advertiser;
2. income of agents that act on behalf of and at the expense of an advertiser and/or an advertising distributor for the performance of an agreement concluded with an advertiser.

Importantly, reported income from the distribution of Internet advertising must be corroborated by account books, service completion certificates and primary documents of the payers of the advertising duty.

Time limits and procedure for the calculation and payment of the advertising duty

The payment period is each quarter running from the beginning of the calendar year. 

No later than the 15^th of the second month of the quarter following a payment period, a calculation of the advertising duty payable for the relevant quarter will be generated in the payer’s account on the official website of Roskomnadzor (the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media). That calculation must be checked and confirmed by the payer within 10 calendar days by means of signing it in the account by an enhanced qualified signature or a simple electronic signature.

In addition, the payer has the right to send Roskomnadzor amended calculation details within the same 10 calendar days. Based on the amended details received from the payer, Roskomnadzor would, within 5 calendar days of receiving the amended details, post an updated calculation to the payer’s account. The payer must in turn calculate and confirm that calculation within 10 calendar days of receiving the updated calculation by signing it in the account.

If the payer does not confirm the calculation or submit amended details, the calculation will be automatically considered to have been accepted and confirmed by the payer upon the lapse of 10 calendar days from the date on which it was posted to the account.

The obligation to pay the advertising duty based on the calculation submitted by Roskomnadzor must be fulfilled no later than the 5^th of the third month of the quarter following the payment period. 

Once Roskomnadzor receives information that payment has been received, it must send a notification of payment to the payer within 1 working day.

Funds paid in excess may be refunded or credited towards future payments through an application to Roskomnadzor.

Thus, taking the second quarter of 2025 as an example, the procedure for the payment of the advertising duty would be as follows:

Monitoring and verification of the fulfilment of obligations to pay the advertising duty

The timely payment of the advertising duty will be continuously monitored by Roskomnadzor on the basis of information received from duty payers and information on payments obtained from the State Information System for State and Municipal Payments. In this regard, monitoring would be conducted without direct interaction with advertising duty payers.

No later than the 20^th of the month preceding the year for which monitoring is to be conducted (i.e., no later than 20 December), Roskomnadzor must submit a monitoring plan to the Russian Ministry for Digital Development. The plan should outline the purpose, timeframes, payer categories, the monitoring deadline, and the procedure for submitting the monitoring results report.

After the end of a monitoring period (i.e., a year) and no later than the 20^th of the month preceding the following year (i.e., no later than 20 December), Roskomnadzor must submit to the Russian Ministry for Digital Development a monitoring report containing lists of payers / non-payers of the advertising duty.

If, in the course of monitoring, Roskomnadzor identifies cases of the non-payment / underpayment of the advertising duty, the payer will be notified of the identified violation and its right to provide an explanation for that violation no later than 7 working days from the date of receipt of the notification of the violation. If Roskomnadzor does not accept the payer’s explanation or the payer does not provide one, Roskomnadzor will issue a demand for the payment of advertising duty. If the payer does not settle the advertising duty within 10 calendar days, the amount in question will be collected through court proceedings.

Thus, the process outlined above for monitoring the timely payment of the advertising duty is established to ensure the full payment of amounts due to the Russian state.

In light of the increased fiscal and administrative burden on advertising business, we recommend taking immediate action to address the following key aspects: