Legal issue: the constitutionality of the contested provision, as interpreted by the current court practice, which refuses to grant tax deduction for the purposes of personal income tax to a parent who has incurred expenses for acquiring for his non-adult child the ownership to a dwelling (an apartment) situated in the territory of the Russian Federation.

Ratio decidendi: the Court deemed the contested provision to be constitutional, but at the same time pointed out that it does not exclude the right of the parent who incurred such expenses for a single use of the tax deduction within the limits established by law. In coming to this conclusion, the Court has invoked its earlier legal position set out in the Judgment of 13 March 2008 № 5-П, according to which the parents having non-adult children and spending their own financial resources for the acquisition of ownership to immovables on a common participatory share basis with such children shall constitute a separate category of taxpayers which by virtue of the constitutional principle of equality of taxation may not be put in a position worse, as compared with other payers of personal income tax. Accordingly, those parents who spent their money for acquiring the ownership to dwelling for their non-adult children may not be put in a position worse, as compared with parents who acquired ownership on a common participatory share basis with their children.