Finance Minister: Within the next 5-8 years Armenia intends to exclude double taxation with 8 more countries

ArmInfo. By the end of the year, Armenia plans to sign agreements that exclude double taxation with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. At the same time, Armenia continues to insist on the need to sign a similar agreement with the United States. Armenian Finance Minister Vardan Aramyan stated at a September 25 press conference.

Minister stressed that Armenia has agreements on the exclusion of double taxation already with 47 countries, the last agreement was recently signed with Israel. Within the next 5-8 years Armenia intends to cancel double taxation with 8 more countries. The purpose of these agreements is to eliminate double taxation in foreign trade between the two states, to avoid tax discrimination with regard to economic entities of the parties, to exclude double taxation on property and income, and to create a predictable and stable tax environment for business. As Vardan Aramyan stressed, the signing of the agreement is vitally important for Armenia also from the point of view of attracting investments.

According to Armenian Finance Minister, today there is a certain contradiction in the issue of signing an agreement with the US. Yerevan does not agree that the document in force to this day, namely the treaty concluded between the US and the Soviet Union is legitimate and can be a guide for the economic entities of the republic. The regime of taxation with the United States has been in force in Armenia since the 1970s, Aramyan noted. However, it is overdue only for the simple reason that the Republic of Armenia is not the legal successor of the USSR, which is also agreed by the experts of international law. Secondly, since the 70's. economic relations in the world have undergone a lot of changes, so the current agreement has become irrelevant. "During this time, a lot has changed, and double taxation hinders business," the minister said.  For example, Aramyan noted that Contour Glboal (the owner of the Vorotan cascade of HPP and the largest American investor from the US in Armenia) entered the Armenian market through a subsidiary in Luxembourg, since the latter has an agreement against the double taxation, and with the United States - no.

Recently, in response to a question from ArmInfo, US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills said that the United States is satisfied with the current agreement on avoidance of double taxation with Armenia, however, at the same time, the US is ready to listen to the Armenian government's arguments about the need for a new Agreement. As the American diplomat noted, the issue of double taxation was raised by the Armenian government. "We have repeatedly noted that the signing of the Agreement will be considered if such a need arises to stimulate trade," Mills said. According to him, the current document on avoidance of double taxation, adopted in the 1970s between the US and the USSR, is quite sufficient for conducting trade between the two countries. "We are waiting for the Armenian government to submit arguments to justify the necessity of concluding a new agreement," the head of the US Diplomacy in Armenia concluded.  Earlier, ArmInfo informed that in October Armenia will again propose the US to conclude a new agreement on this matter. The issue of exclusion of double taxation between Armenia and the US has been discussed for over 20 years - since 1994 the Armenian government has raised this issue. In 2000, during the Armenian-American intergovernmental meeting, this issue was raised again and since then preparatory work has been carried out, and negotiations have not started.