In Armenia they promise to facilitate the life of law-abiding taxpayers

ArmInfo. The Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan on February 22 at a Cabinet meeting called for proposals to facilitate the life of law-abiding taxpayers.

The Prime minister stressed that the revenues of the state treasury of Armenia in 2017, as compared to 2016, grew by about 125 billion drams. "Despite this indicator, it should be noted that there are still problems in reducing tax risks, evading tax payments or their artificial reduction, as well as in the sphere of targeted use of tax benefits due to inaccurate legislative regulations," Karapetyan said.

In this regard, as the head of government said, the State Revenue Committee (KGD) recently arranged meetings with more than 500 taxpayers in 18 areas, and studies were carried out. As a result, it became clear that the solution of the identified problems is in the competence of a number of other executive bodies.

Taking into account the above, Karen Karapetyan instructed the head of the KGD, within 7 days, to identify the problems and proposals on their possible decision on the spheres to be presented to the heads of the republican executive bodies.  In addition, the head of the government staff was instructed to develop and submit a draft decision on the creation of an interdepartmental working group within 10 days. The latter, within a strictly defined timeframe, will have to submit proposals to the government to soften tax administration for law-abiding taxpayers, reduce tax risks and remove mechanisms that facilitate this, clarify the mechanisms for applying benefits, and address identified systemic problems. "The number one task that faces the interdepartmental group is the facilitation of the life of law-abiding taxpayers," the prime minister said.

Recall that in late January this year. the head of the Tax Inspectorate of the Department of Large and Medium Taxpayers of the Armenian State Securities Committee Armen Safaryan stated that according to the results of the dialogue started between the RA KGD and business in 2017, the growth of tax revenues was recorded. Noting that the business entities significantly improved their tax behavior, he pointed out that risks still exist. "Underestimation of profits, inflation of expenses, incomplete declaration of turnover and prices of taxpayers, violation of the rules for the use of cash registers - these are the main tasks that are inherent in almost all spheres," he said. According to the information, at this stage, on the instructions of the head of the tax and customs body, there continue the infernal discussions, during which the entrepreneurs are presented with the risks inherent in a particular area. As the head of Tax Inspectorate- Department of Small Taxpayers of KGD of Armenia Rafik Mashadyan noted, the main problem is incomplete documenting of transactions. "If it is possible to achieve correct and complete documentation of transactions, then there will not be any risks associated with the calculation of taxes," he said.

Note that by the end of 2017, the Committee provided 1 201.6 trillion drams of tax revenue (including VAT) instead of the envisaged 1,135 trillion. drams. The amount of tax revenues for the reporting period exceeded the actual annual indicator of 2016 by 124.7 billion drams or 11.6%. In particular, the tax authorities provided 883.8 billion drams, with the annual growth of 7.9% or 64.6 billion drams and 317.8 billion drams accounted for by the customs, with an increase of 23.3% per annum or 60 billion drams.  Excluding VAT, the amount of tax revenues amounted to 1 155 trillion drams, which is more than the annual figure by 7.3% or 78.7 billion drams.