The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has published an answer to the question about what American companies should do if they decide to leave the Russian market after withdrawing assets and the Russian government forces them to pay a so-called “exit tax”.
“Exit tax” is the so-called voluntary contribution to the budget introduced by the Russian authorities in 2022 with transactions for the sale of assets by foreigners from unfriendly states. Since its introduction, the “exit tax” has increased from 5% to 25% in 2024.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s explanation, published on April 7, states that “U.S. persons whose divestment of assets in the Russian Federation will involve a payment of such an “exit tax” should seek a specific license from OFAC. Such persons may submit a request for a specific license with OFAC’s Licensing Division online at https://ofac.treasury.gov/ofac-license-application-page“.
The OFAC promised to speed up the consideration of requests, evaluating them on a case-by-case basis.
In 2023, the “exit tax” enriched the Russian budget by more than 115.8 billion rubles (about 1 billion euros), and in 2025 — more than 140 billion.
