Entry to the High-Tech Park (HTP) in Belarus

What is HTP in the Republic of Belarus

The High Technologies Park (HTP) is a specific preferential tax treatment provided by the state to companies operating in the field of information technology.

The HTP was established in accordance with Decree No. 12 of 22.09.2005 "On the High Technologies Park".

Currently, the HTP activities are regulated by the above-mentioned Decree, Provision on the HTP, which was approved by the Decree, as well as Decree No. 8 of 21.12.2017 "On the Development of the Digital Economy".

The main difference between the HTP in Belarus and in most foreign countries is that it can be referred to as virtual. That is, a legal entity that meets the HTP requirements is entitled to become a resident and apply the benefits regardless of its location on the territory of the Republic of Belarus. It means that you can be registered as a resident and take all the HTP advantages if you have a company office in any regional centre or in any town/locality.

It is worth a lot, as it maximises the use of the country's educational, research and other potential.

Why Spex Advisers?

1) We have helped more than 50 companies become HTP residents over the past 18 months;

2) We provide management services for HTP resident companies. We know from and to how the work of an HTP resident company is arranged, how to properly execute an HTP business project, how to organize reporting, etc. When drawing up a business project, we take this practical component into account;

3) We provide accounting services in Belarus to HTP residents: we know all the nuances of taxation and reporting, knowledge of which helps us in drawing up business projects for clients;

4) We recruit a large number of employees for HTP residents every year.

Number of HTP residents as at January-February 2021

In order to expand and improve the treatment of HTP residents' activities, Decree No. 8 of 21.12.2017 "On the Development of the Digital Economy" was adopted.

In only 2 years since the adoption of the above-mentioned Decree, the number of HTP residents has increased fivefold.

319 new companies joined the HTP in 2019 and 236 in 2020. Today, the HTP includes 969 residents and around 65,000 employees, which allowed to create more than 5,000 new workplaces.

Advantages of dealing with the HTP compared to the regular tax regime

For HTP residents, there is a huge list of tax incentives, which include tax exemption, application of zero, or reduced rate in relation to certain taxes. Such incentives are provided by Decrees No. 8 and 12.

Tax incentives for HTP residents include:

0% – VAT (Value-added tax);

0% – income tax;

0% – offshore duty;

0% – customs duties on the import of technological equipment;

0% – income tax for foreign organisations, including the sale of their stocks (shares) in HTP resident companies;

0% – VAT and income tax on mining, buying/selling and exchanging cryptocurrencies, and other token transactions;

0% – real estate tax (in relation to facilities located on the HTP territory (except for those rented out by HTP residents);

0% – land tax (in relation to land plots within the HTP boundaries for the period of construction on them by residents, but not more than for 3 years, of capital structures (buildings, construction) intended for HTP residents' activities);

9% – income tax (in 2021-2022, the rate of 13% applies as part of measures aimed at combating the COVID-19 pandemic);

5% – income tax for foreign organisations (not operating in Belarus through a permanent establishment, in case of paying dividends to a foreign organization from an HTP resident).

Main activities of HTP residents

The HTP was created for the development of ICT, so the activities of residents should be related to the field of high technologies. The list of activities that give grounds to become an HTP resident is established by law. Since there are more than 30 types of activities in this list, let's name the most common ones:

mining;
cryptocurrency-related activities;
activities in the field of e-sports, including the training of e-sports teams, organization and conduct of competitions, broadcasts, etc.;
creation, training of neural networks and other algorithms in specialized sections of artificial intelligence and implementation of the results of these activities;
development or stages of development of medical technologies, biotechnologies and implementation of the results of such developments;
development or stages of development of aviation and space technologies and implementation of the results of such developments;
educational activities in the field of information and communication technologies, including through the global computer network Internet, according to programs approved by the HTP Administration;
fundamental and applied research, experimental developments in the field of natural and technical sciences and implementation of the results of such research and development;
execution of individual works (stages of work) that make up the process of developing software (software tools), support, maintenance of software (software tools) of consumers or their own software (software tools);
creation of databases by an HTP resident in the process of developing information systems and software by such a resident, preparation of records for these databases in a given format, providing of access to these databases, their support and maintenance;
providing of system maintenance services for computer equipment and local area networks of state information systems;
services for the implementation, maintenance or stages of the implementation of corporate information systems;
activities related to the design, development, maintenance, implementation, operation of software and (or) software-hardware based on or using a transaction block register (blockchain), other distributed decentralized information systems, including those using cryptographic information protection tools;

A business project for joining the HTP: sections of the business project, financial indicators

The business project is one of the main documents that must be submitted to register as an HTP resident.

The business project is prepared according to the form approved by the Regulation of the Council of Ministers. In addition, the HTP Administration has developed methodological recommendations on the preparation of documents submitted for registration as an HTP resident, which describe the requirements for a business project in detail.

The legislation recommends the following sections to be included in a business project:

CV (Resume). The purpose of this section is to present the essence of the business project in a concise and accessible form;
Characteristics of the legal entity, individual entrepreneur and its development strategy. This section describes the history of the foundation, products, the main indicators of financial and economic activities, and fills in the passport and other information;
Description of goods (works, services), property rights to be released under the project. This section provides information about the products, particularly the scope of application; main features, availability of patents, licenses, certificates, etc.;
Market outlets analysis. In this section, it is recommended to specify the sales volume, which will be based on market analysis and the development of a marketing strategy;
Current and planned results of financial and economic activities. This section is presented in the form of a table indicating production and sales volume, operational efficiency, social development, etc.;
Project implementation plan. This section is recommended to be represented as a time chart or network graph. An indication of the period of the project validity must be specified;
Investment plan. Investment objects. This section is also presented in the form of a table, which should reflect and plan the acquisition of fixed assets, software products, licenses, and other investment objects required for the implementation of the project.

In addition, the business project includes the title page, the content of the main sections and applications.

All financial indicators are reflected in the monetary units of the Republic of Belarus, i.e., Belarusian rubles. Foreign currency is used as the basis for the calculation of export operations.

Refusal of admission to the HTP: What to do?

The grounds for refusal to register an applicant as an HTP resident are:

negative conclusion on the scientific and technical examination(s) of the documents submitted by the applicant for registration;
the Supervisory Board’s decision on the lack of importance and significance of the business project proposed for implementation as an HTP resident for the development of the field of new and high technology.

However, please do not despair, since such a refusal does not prevent the candidate from re-applying for registration after correcting mentioned errors.

The decision on refusal is issued to the applicant within 5 working days since the day of adopting the decision on refusal of registration and must contain sound reasons for the refusal. Such refusal can be appealed to the court.

How to reach us

If you want to use our services please contact us:

+ 375 29 366 44 77 (Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber)

Email: info@spex.by