Starting from Jan 1, 2019 cash receipts will again become tax  documents in Armenia confirming expenses of business entities 

ArmInfo. Cashier's checks will  again become tax documents confirming the costs of business entities  in Armenia from January 1, 2019, Chairman of the State Revenue  Committee of Armenia David Ananyan stated on July 13 answering the  question by ArmInfo. Meanwhile, from January 1, 2018, the Armenian  businessmen are obliged to present an invoice  to the tax authorities  to confirm any costs starting from buying toilet paper, ending with  restaurant parties with business partners.

According to the Chairman of the Committee, back in December 2017,  when the country's financial authorities were discussing a package of  tax changes, it was decided to accept a cash voucher as a  justification for confirming costs, if it contains information about  both sides of the deal. As a result the Committee was obliged before  July 1, 2018 to regulate the issue and create appropriate technical  capabilities. "Unfortunately, due to subjective and objective  reasons, we were not able to carry out the process until July 1,"  Ananyan said. He informed that as of July 5, the department completed  process of developing an appropriate software solution. Starting from  this moment, the next generation cash registers can issue checks,  which show both sides of the transaction. But, as Ananyan explained  in order to implement this process, the State Revenue Committee  should come up with a legislative initiative.  Meanwhile, the  National Assembly is on vacation at the moment, and the proposal of  the tax authorities will be considered at best in September this  year. "I think that starting from January 1, 2019, the cash receipt,  which fully identifies both sides of the transaction, will become a  document confirming the expenses," he said. At the same time starting  from January 1, 2019, old-generation cash receipts will not be valid.

David Ananyan refrained from naming the percentage of economic  entities that still continue to work using old cash registers as of  July 13. "I can only say that a sufficient number of new cash  register machines have been delivered to the relevant warehouses. At  the same time they will be provided free of charge to the businesses  of the border areas (for the rest, the maximum price is set at 160  thousand AMD ed. note)," he said. In addition, according to the head  of the Committee, the department plans to completely liberalize  provision and sale of cash registers. Until now, this field has been  monopolized by the state non- governmental organization , which was founded specifically  for this purpose. Thus, if everything goes according to the plan,  starting from January 1, 2019, business entities - organizations or  an individual entrepreneur in order to justify their expenses in the  taxation body can just present their tax identification number (TIN)  to the cashier. The cashier finds the organization in the database  and its TIN is printed on the check.

It should be noted that the Armenian government has repeatedly  extended the terms of introduction of a new generation of cash  register machines. There were made mendments to the law "On the  application of cash register machines", in accordance with which the  introduction of new generation cash registers in Armenia was  postponed for a year - until January 1, 2016, and then - until  January 1, 2017. And if earlier, depending on the size of the  business turnover, a differentiated attitude was envisaged in issuing  a cash receipt, for today the only exception is the implementation of  activities on the frontier zone.

Meanwhile, according to independent experts, the new initiative to  replace cash registers and the history of checks does not withstand  any criticism. A few years ago, a proposal was made to the  government: instead of creating difficulties for business entities  and obliging them to go for additional spending, which sometimes is  too high for small businesses, to adopt a resolution that obliges  them to use only corporate banking cards, naturally attached to the  bank accounts of a legal entity. This measure is low-cost and  effeicient in terms of identifying both the seller and the buyer.  There was also a bill according to which the presence of  POS-terminals would be mandatory for all outlets in the country.  Moreover, new types of cash machines introduced in 2012 are already  equipped with the possibility of accepting bank cards, and banks have  a direct interest in providing the necessary software on a free basis  to trade and service facilities. The government's unwillingness to  follow this simple and effective solution, which would significantly  reduce the volume of cash turnover in the economy, testifies to a  simple deceit. Therefore, experts do not doubt that the difficulties  created for business entities are not accidental: the tax authorities  will again start to "horrify" the business, and the import of new  cash registers will be entrusted to the next oligarchic structure.