Whenever enterprises producing and selling ice-cream are to pay taxes, they are always doubtful whether the sales tax levied on this product on the territory of the Moscow Region is justified. Their doubts are aroused by the fact that the Moscow Region Department of the Ministry of Taxes and Levies issued the Directions On the Procedure of Computation and Payment of Sales Tax dated 29 December 2000, which changed the procedure of levying of the said tax as compared to that established by the laws of Russia and the Moscow Region.

      The fact is that in these Directions ice-cream is deleted from the list of dairy products.

      At the same time, pursuant to the Law On Fundamentals of the Tax System in RF (Art. 20) and the Law of the Moscow Region On Sales Tax, milk and dairy products are entered without any exceptions into the list of non-assessable goods. Besides, it is necessary to be guided by the All-Russian Classifier of Products OK 005-93 applicable on the entire territory of the Russian Federation, which includes ice-cream in the group of dairy products.

      Proceeding from the above, it may be concluded that by deleting ice-cream from the list of non-assessable goods the Department of the Ministry of Taxes and Levies has exceeded its authority, thus having worsened the conditions of conscientious ice-cream producers and sellers, and this cannot be justified.

      Under these circumstances the Directions themselves or resolutions of tax authorities based on the Directions may be contested in court.