The льгота долгосрочного владения (ЛДВ), or long-term holding benefit, is the main tax optimisation tool for investors in Russian stocks and funds. It allows capital gains from the sale of listed securities to be fully or partially exempt from NDFL if the assets have been held for at least 3 years.
Conditions to apply ЛДВ (in force from 2025):
- The asset must be listed on the Moscow Exchange (MOEX) or the Saint Petersburg Exchange.
- From 2025, ЛДВ applies only to securities issued by companies incorporated in Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) member states: Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan. Securities of non-EAEU foreign companies are excluded.
- The asset must have been acquired on or after 1 January 2014.
- The holding period must be at least 3 full calendar years. One day short would void the benefit.
- The maximum exempt amount is calculated by multiplying 3.000.000 ₽ by the number of full years held: after 3 years, 9.000.000 ₽ would be exempt; after 5 years, 15.000.000 ₽.
- From 2025, the total cumulative exempt amount under ЛДВ in a given year (across all assets and accounts) cannot exceed 50.000.000 ₽.
An investor buys shares in a Russian БПИФ listed on MOEX for 800.000 ₽ in 2021 and sells them in 2025 for 2.300.000 ₽ after 4 years. The capital gain would be 1.500.000 ₽. The exempt limit for 4 full years would be 12.000.000 ₽ (3.000.000 × 4). Since the gain is below the limit, the capital gain would be completely free of NDFL. As the fund is Russian and listed on MOEX, it would meet all the 2025 requirements.
ЛДВ does not apply to cryptocurrencies or unallocated metal accounts (ОМС). From 2025, it also does not apply to securities of non-EAEU companies. For most Russian investors trading domestic stocks and funds (Sberbank, Gazprom, Russian БПИФs), ЛДВ continues to work exactly as before.