When I left Pannell Kerr Forster’s London office last May, after being an audit manager for four and a half years, to make a name for myself in the big wide world, the one good bit of advice I was given was ‘never turn down a new client’.
The next week I turned up at my new workplace – an extension to my house – and took up my position as chief bottlewasher, cleaner, audit clerk, filing clerk and, oh yes, partner. Work was advertised in the usual way and slowly but surely a variety of clients passed through our door – self-employed sub-contractors, small sole traders, individual capital gains tax problems, profit-related pay schemes and management accounts for a Russian telecommunications business with a US£2.3 million turnover. This was a subsidiary of a company quoted on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges which had invested C$26,500,000 in the subsidiary – a bit out of the ordinary!
Remembering the advice I had been given, the answer was ‘Yes, but what’s the question?’ What are the reporting requirements? Conforming to what accounting standards? And do I get paid in roubles, Canadian dollars, US dollars or sterling (in reverse order of preference)? In the last year alone the value of the rouble to the US dollar has roughly halved. It used to be 1,000 roubles to one US dollar, now it’s 1,940 roubles. Fortunately, the holding company, or should I say parent company undertaking, had other interests in the United Kingdom, therefore it was agreed that we would be paid in sterling.
Anyway, we seemed to fit into this cosy tripartite agreement (Toronto, London, Russia). Besides, if all else failed, we could be used as messengers. St Petersburg is three hours ahead of us and Toronto is five hours behind us. So in a normal working day, the Russian staff leave their office at 5pm when the Toronto staff are just starting their day at 9am. We, on the other hand, can pass the messages to Toronto from St Petersburg, get an answer, alter the accounts and send these to St Petersburg in time for 9am their time the next day.
Chris Wilkins FCCA has clients in St Petersburg, Moscow and Kazakhstan. He has travelled on business in Russia and regularly grapples with the vagaries of Russian taxes. Here he explores the pros and cons of working in Russia.
