The Ministry of Finance of Armenia plans in March 2018 to discuss with the American side the question of excluding double taxation

ArmInfo. The Government of  Armenia plans to address the issue of excluding double taxation  between Armenia and the US in March 2018 - during the next meeting of  the intergovernmental commission. The RA Minister of Finance Vardan  Aramyan told journalists on February 11 on the margins of the seminar  on "Awareness of mass media representatives".

Vardan Aramyan reminded that the issue is permanently on the agenda  of bilateral relations. Recently, the processes in this direction  became more active - for the last time during the meeting of the head  of the Ministry of Finance of Armenia and the US Ambassador to  Armenia. Nevertheless, the solution of the question is still marking  time. "We cite our arguments, they are our own, perhaps, on the other  hand, we need to approach the solution of this problem," the minister  said.

In any case, as the Armenian Ministry of Finance confidently states,  the absence of an agreement on the exclusion of double taxation  hinders the adoption of positive decisions by economic entities. Such  an example has already been fixed, Aramyan said. In particular, the  company "Contour global" entered the Armenian market through the  Luxembourg company. "It's quite logical that Armenia and Luxembourg  have an agreement on the exclusion of double taxation, which, in  turn, inspires confidence about what the principles of international  taxation should be." If I were at the site of this company, I would  have made such a decision myself, - Vardan Aramyan said. 

At the same time, as he pointed out, the existence of a new treaty is  extremely important if there is a desire to expand bilateral economic  ties - trade or investment.  Nevertheless, the minister found it  difficult to name the terms of the agreement. To date, the head of  the Armenian Ministry of Finance is satisfied that his American  colleague Stephen Mnuchin responded positively to the initiative,  expressing his readiness to discuss the issue. "I think this is a  step forward," concluded Vardan Aramyan.

February 7, ArmInfo reported that the US Department of Treasury  expressed its readiness to discuss the revision of the Treaty on  Avoidance double taxation with Armenia. Earlier, Congressmen Brad  Sherman and David Valadou initiated the collection of signatures in  the US Congress under an appeal to the head of the Treasury to resume  negotiations on the revision of the existing double taxation order  between the United States and Armenia.  US Treasury Secretary Stephen  Mnuchin, "reacting to the growing interest of congressmen regarding  the revision of the existing document," noted that the Treasury  Department will allocate the appropriate human resources for studying  the Treaty on Avoiding Double Taxation with Armenia.

It should be noted that for several years the Armenian lobby of the  United States, together with the members of the Armenian support  group in the Congress, is trying to achieve the abolition of the  double taxation system between Yerevan and Washington. Negotiations  started on this account ceased without giving concrete results. 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, the issue of the need to  conclude a treaty was raised.  Since then, although preparatory work  is under way to conclude a treaty, in fact, the talks themselves have  not started. 

Earlier, Armenian Minister of Finance Vardan Aramyan, responding to  the question of ArmInfo, recalled that in June 2017, Armenia joined  the 15th Action "Organization for the Development of Economic  Cooperation in the framework of the program to prevent the  destruction of the tax base and the transfer of profit" (BEPS), along  with 68 countries around the world, which makes it possible to  interpret treaties against double taxation in a uniform way. Becoming  a party to the agreement, the country establishes clear rules of the  game in the tax field, and raises the reliability of the country from  the point of view of the investor.

Armenia has similar agreements with 47 countries, the last agreement  was recently signed with Israel. The purpose of these agreements is  to eliminate double taxation in foreign trade between two states,  avoid tax discrimination with respect to economic entities of the  parties, exclude double taxation on property and income, and create a  predictable and stable tax environment for business.