MOSCOW, June 1 In Russia, paper excise stamps on cigarette packs are being phased out — only QR codes will remain, which are now sufficient to calculate taxes and customs duties .
At the end of April, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that prescribes customs and tax administration to abandon paper excise stamps and switch to only digital labeling of tobacco and excisable nicotine-containing products. The corresponding changes come into force on June 1. 
< br />For these purposes, the Tax Code was supplemented with the term “accounting and control special mark” for labeling tobacco and nicotine-containing products. In essence, this is a unique QR code that is applied to the pack, explained Deputy Head of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation Alexey Sazanov.
Innovations will allow maintaining the powers of customs authorities to administer excise taxes on tobacco products imported from the EAEU countries. Control will also be ensured over the correct determination of the tax base for excise taxes on tobacco and nicotine-containing products.
If the size of the tax base determined by the taxpayer turns out to be less than the volume of products sold according to the state information system for monitoring the turnover of labeled goods, the tax base will be determined based on the data of this system.