ArmInfo. The Armenian Restaurant Association issued a statement in which it expressed its strong disagreement with the government's proposal to introduce a common value added tax (VAT) system.
As noted by the restaurateurs, the system is aimed at eliminating the turnover tax, in particular for representatives of catering. As a result of the implementation of the initiative, as noted by the restaurateurs, the tax burden in the field will increase 3-4-fold, and the cost of services in the sector will increase significantly. "Hundreds of enterprises will be closed, we will lose thousands of jobs," the statement said. Meanwhile, the industry has not yet recovered from the crisis over the war and the coronavirus. In addition, according to the Union, the new legislative initiative will lead to a reduction in tax revenues of the state treasury. "That is, it will not serve the government's stated goal of increasing tax revenues to the state budget," they said.
Representatives of the catering sector recalled that in 2018 the tax burden of the field was increased threefold, which means that if the proposed concept is adopted within 3 years, the taxation of the sector's business will increase 10-fold.
In this regard, the Armenian Restaurant Association calls for maintaining the current turnover tax regulations, improving tax administration and not hindering the restoration of the field. To recall, at the end of 2019, the Armenian government announced a series of tax changes, including from January 1, 2020, Armenia abandoned the license tax system with the transition to a general taxation system, as well as from two alternative taxation systems - self-employed and family entrepreneurship. it was replaced by micro-entrepreneurship with a non-taxable threshold of up to 24 million drams. The financial authorities then said that at this stage they refrained from increasing the tax burden for catering representatives. So, the turnover tax for them at the level of 10% did not come into force in 2020, as it was provided for by the new Tax Code.
For them, the adjustments that came into force on July 1, 2018 were retained, that is, a 6% turnover tax, with the possibility of a tax deduction of 3% of the documented expenses, but not less than 4% of the turnover. At the same time, new taxation norms came into force on July 1, 2018 - the license tax for restaurants (tax per square meter) was replaced by a 6% turnover tax.
Meanwhile, as the Ministry of Finance of Armenia told ArmInfo, in fact, the department does not support the initiative. It was reported here that there is not even a draft law, but only a concept developed by the Ministry of Economy.
