ArmInfo. 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. Answering the question of ArmInfo, the US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills stated on September 13 in Yerevan.
As the American diplomat noted, the issue of double taxation was raised by the Armenian government. "We 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.
The issue of canceling double taxation with the US has been on the agenda of Armenian-American relations for a long time. Earlier, ArmInfo informed that in October Armenia will again propose the US to conclude a new agreement on this matter. As the Minister of Finance of Armenia Vardan Aramyan stated on July 27, during the last 10 years this issue was ranked among the priority ones in the Armenian Ministry of Finance. The Minister recalled that in June 2017, Armenia, along with other 68 countries of the world, joined the 15th Action Plan of the Organization for Economic Cooperation Development to combat the erosion of the taxable base and the removal of profits from taxation (English Base Erosion and Profit Shifting , BEPS) .
After becoming a party to the agreement, clear rules of the game are established in the country in the tax field and the reliability of the country from the investors' point of view is being raised. the current agreement concluded between the Soviet Union and the United States is overdue and irrelevant, only for the simple reason that the Republic of Armenia is not the legal successor of the USSR It is noteworthy that the internationally recognized successor of the USSR, its "legitimate heiress", the Russian Federation in June 1992 signed an agreement with the US "On the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of tax evasion with respect to taxes on income and capital," thus recognizing the old Agreement as null and void. Meanwhile, business representatives, knowing about the absence of an agreement excluding the double taxation between Armenia and the US, are quite reasonable in their own development of other schemes for doing business through their branches in countries that already have an appropriate agreement with the United States. In addition, according to the Ministry of Finance, the presence of a double taxation may be a barrier to attracting mutual investments, since the prospect of paying taxes can scare off potential investors twice.
To note, 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, to avoid tax discrimination with respect 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. 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.