MOSCOW. May 1 (Interfax) - Russian Higher Arbitration Court Chairman Anton Ivanov has signed a Higher Arbitration Court plenum ruling banning courts from confiscating companies' revenues obtained from transactions aimed at tax evasion.

The Higher Arbitration Court's ruling No. 22 is published on the court's website.

In line with Article 169 of the Russian Civil Code, revenues from transactions running counter to the fundamental principles of law and morality can be confiscated in favor of the state.

The Higher Arbitration Court lists among such deals those related to the production and sales of weapons, ammunition, narcotic drugs, and other products hazardous to people's health. In addition, "immoral" deals could include those related to the production and circulation of literature or other products propagating war or ethnic, racial, or religious enmity, or those related to the manufacture or sales of counterfeit documents or securities.

The Russian law enables tax agencies to file suits to invalidate certain deals and confiscate all revenues from such deals in favor of the state. However, in the view of the Higher Arbitration Court, tax agencies could apply Article 169 of the Civil Code to demand the recovery of the revenues from such deals only in cases related to control over the circulation of ethyl alcohol or alcohol-containing products, as they are hazardous to people's health.

"At the same time, a tax agency's demand on applying the Article 169's consequences of a deal's invalidity on the grounds that this deal was concluded for tax evasion purposes is beyond the tax agency's authority, as the recovery of all revenues from the deal in favor of the Russian Federation is not a measure aimed at ensuring the collection of taxes to the budget," the court ruled.

Among the most high-profile cases in which Article 169 of the Civil Code was recently applied were those involving Bashkortostan-based fuel and energy companies, the oil company RussNeft, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers Audit.

The Federal Tax Service went to court to appeal transactions involving stakes in Bashneft, Bashkirnefteprodukt, Ufaorgsintez, Novoil, Ufaneftekhim, and the Ufa oil refinery, claiming that these transactions violated competition legislation. Moreover, a Federal Tax Service official accused "a group of individuals close to Ural Rakhimov (Bashkir President Murtaza Rakhimov's son)" that the real goal of these transactions was to make sure that the companies are owned by "a company having a nontransparent management structure" and to evade taxes.

A court also declared null and void contracts between PriceWaterhouseCoopers Audit, a Russian branch of the U.S.-based audit giant PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and the Yukos oil company on auditing the latter in 2002-2004. The audit company was in fact found guilty of helping its clients apply illegal tax evasion schemes and violating professional standards.

Courts are now hearing Federal Tax Service suits on annulling transactions with RussNeft shares. Tax authorities believe that the RussNeft founders used companies formerly or currently holding stakes in RussNeft to diffuse its shares through concluding series of purchase and sale deals with them.