Timur Akhmerov: ‘I want us to pay taxes, bring children up and work in a chic office in Innopolis’

The more comfortable and accessible the productional and social infrastructure of Innopolis as a Russian centre of transfer of basic IT elaborations becomes, the quicker companies decided to move. The Techno Park of Innopolis plans to fill about 1,000 vacant positions for IT specialists till the end of the year.

Move to Innopolis is not a business trip

BARS Group – the leading Russian developer of cloud management systems – was one of the first companies to announce a move of its workers on a permanent basis to Innopolis. On the eve of the remarkable event, director general of BARS Group Timur Akhmerov together with a team of specialists personally visited the new city in order to acquaint with the living conditions in detail and know it from Yegor Ivanov, the Mayor of the city. At a working breakfast, the Mayor told about the quality of life that the high-tech city promises. First of all, we speak about a comfortable dwelling that is within a stone's throw from the Techno Park, bilingual kindergarten without queues, a medical centre with unique equipment (there is even a sleep laboratory), a general education school and an IT school. According to Yegor Ivanov, today's infrastructure is ready to host 5,000 people, and 1,100 people are constantly living in the city.

At a working breakfast, the Mayor told about the quality of life that the high-tech city promises

'Speaking about the USA, people change 6 cities in their life because organisation of life is clear. Meanwhile, a move is an event for a citizen of Russia. Each place has its own rules. This is why a goal of the city is to offer a quick and quality integration of citizens to the city life,' Mayor of Innopolis Yegor Ivanov welcomed the future citizens.

The population of Innopolis is to total 155,000 people in the future, 60,000 of them are IT specialists. As the Mayor said, Innopolis is created as a diversified city because 'scientists' children may not become scientists'. A huge job was done, so that the city will become comfortable for not only work but also everyday life. At present Innopolis has the greatest amount of sports facilities per capita. The city will have seven swimming pools, three football pitches, a volleyball court and a hockey rink.

'We don't consider the move to Innopolis as a business trip where one can go while there is a flat paid by the corporate budget. We want the workers, who decided to stay for long and are ready to participate in the life of this city, to bring their children up and purchase their own flat in the future to work in our office. Advantages of life in Innopolis will give your personal investments in installation in a new place back,' Timur Akhmerov told.

This year the company booked one of the 16 constructed houses of the city for its experts. It has 85 flats. IT experts and their families will live on the first floor.

Timur Akhmerov: 'A part of the team connected with software development will move to Innopolis. Being in the centre of high tech of Russia, these people will be able to take advantages of educational programmes, non-formal educational associations and the environment forming in the city of the future'.

'BARS Group is so big that it is not supposed to move the whole team,' Akhmerov specified. 'We have 12 offices in Russia. A part of the team connected with software development will move to Innopolis. Being in the centre of high tech of Russia, these people will be able to take advantages of educational programmes, non-formal educational associations and the environment forming in the city of the future. Undoubtedly, it's up to the workers to decide whether to go or not. Each of them should think all pros and cons over, advise with families and make a choice. We also think the work and living conditions will be interesting for our new employees from different regions of Russia and other countries.'

Will BARS Group provide Innopolis with a well-off future?

Timur Akhmerov made a sensational statement when just a couple of seconds left before the end of the meeting. He announced BARS Group is going to re-register the company in Innopolis, so that each worker's income tax will be expended on the urban development. According to him, Innopolis will be able to earn up to 100m rubles in a year.

'Personally, I believe in this city. I want us to become one of the city-forming enterprises. I want us to pay taxes, bring children up and work in a chic office in the Techno Park. Although I work mostly in Moscow, I'm not going to move there on a permanent basis. This is why my personal future will possibly be connected with Innopolis,' he told. Evgeny Danilov, deputy director of BARS Group on project management, explained Realnoe Vremya that the administration already set a task to re-register the official address of the company. It will be done during the year. 'The notification about deregistration from Kazan will be executed at short notice. We have hundreds of contracts on 44-Federal Law and 223-Federal Law that have the current address. We need to notify every client and send the new information. It will take time.'

Timur Akhmerov announced BARS Group is going to re-register in Innopolis . Photo: Maksim Platonov

If the volume of tax payments doesn't change after the change of the registration of BARS Group, the regional budgets of Tatarstan will feel a big difference in the income redistribution from income tax. As the press service of the Administration of the Federal Tax Service of Tatarstan told Realnoe Vremya, the budget of Kazan and a part of the regional budget will suffer from the re-registration of tax payers from Kazan to Innopolis. 'In Kazan, 85% of income tax go to the regional budget and 15% — to the municipal budget of Kazan. Reregistration will give Innopolis only 32% of income tax, the budget of Verkhny Uslon District will have 58%, and Innopolis will get 10%,' according to the message of the Tax Service. The total sum of tax payments from income tax of Innopolis doesn't impress now. 42,660m rubles were received in 2016, including 4,266m rubles were expended to the budget of Innopolis.

The City Administration of Innopolis replied in a measured tone to the announcement of BARS Group.

'I'm not a supporter of deregistration of all Kazan companies. We don't need to compete with Kazan. I think we should complement each other properly, build a cooperation model, not a rivalry with the 'big brother'. The focus is to be on the opening of new functional areas and new working places by companies, not just a derigestration of juridical persons,' Yegor Ivanov commented.

'Status of the Partner of Innopolis has been introduced as well as the status of the Resident to make the migration terms simpler,' Yegor Ivanov told. 'President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov charged with the creation of a mechanism to grant this status'.

Yegor Ivanov: 'We are not fighting for reregistration of companies. It is important the companies opened real working places and created IT products that would be in demand in the market, no matter what juridical status they have'

It was done in order to generate companies in Innopolis that would offer working places. What impedes them? There are different leasing terms for the residents of SEZ and non-residents of SEZ till the recent time. There was a situation when such a big company as Yandex did not create a separate juridical person, while it is obligatory in order to obtain the status of the Resident. This is why such a company could not get access to the infrastructure of the Techno Park on equal terms like Resident. The status of the Partner will equalise their rights and the rights of the Residents on the access to the infrastructure. Tax concessions is not the key argument for most companies. As Timur Akhmerov told, being a part of the Ministry of Communications of Russia, BARS Group pays 16% insurance contributions to the social fund less. And Vladimir Putin extended these concessions to Russian IT companies till 2023. 'We are not fighting for a re-registration of companies. It is important that companies open real working places and create IT products that would be in demand in the market, no matter what juridical status they have,' Yegor Ivanov resumed.

When the article was almost ready for publication, the press service of BARS Group informed about its decision to register its new subsidiary only, not the whole company. 'We assessed the economic appropriateness of the decision on the transfer of the juridical person from Kazan to Innopolis and registration of a new juridical person in Innopolis. Then it was decided to register a new subsidiary company in the high-tech city.'