The measure follows the signing and issuance of domestic Russian decrees restricting the application of certain articles of the Treaty (Articles 5-22 and 24) in the summer, which we reported on in our article. In the Notice the Ministry of Finance announce that in the absence of the application of Articles 5-22 and 24 of the Treaty, there cannot be a situation where, as of the date of suspension of the application of the Articles in question, one Contracting Party to the Treaty would be obliged to exclude double taxation under Article 23 of the Treaty, since the income or property could not be taxed in the other Contracting State “in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty” or “pursuant to the provisions of this Treaty”, as stated in Article 23 of the Treaty. By analogy, the same applies to paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 25 of the Treaty. This is the reason why these Treaty articles shall not be further applied from the Czech perspective.

As the suspension of the implementation of the Articles in question has national effects in the Czech Republic immediately from the date of publication (i.e. from 29 September 2023), we recommend checking the possible effects without delay.