ArmInfo. The state budget of Armenia does not envisage changes in the tax policy regarding the refusal from the turnover tax. Minister of Finance of Armenia Tigran Khachatryan announced this on November 2 at the joint meetings of the standing committees of the parliament during the preliminary hearings of the state budget for 2022.
According to him, at this stage, the Armenian government is not ready to conduct a meaningful conversation on the topic of lowering the non-taxable value added tax (VAT) threshold (from January 1, 2020, Armenia returned to a non-taxable annual turnover of up to 115 million drams, Ed. note) or the elimination of the tax from turnover, in this regard, no additional tax revenues to the state treasury are provided as a result of these changes. "We envisage a very detailed, comprehensive return to the topic in 2022," he said.
At the same time, according to Khachatryan, possible amendments to the tax code may relate to the taxation of the agricultural sector, alternative tax systems and microbusiness. The head of the Ministry of Finance noted that today two businesses engaged in the same activity find themselves in an unequal position - small and medium-sized businesses pay turnover tax, large business - income tax and VAT. As a result, the effective tax paid by SMEs is 3-4%, while large business pays 2-2.5 times more - 10%.
As Khachatryan pointed out, if, as a result of the study of the Ministry of Finance, it turns out that the turnover tax has created extremely unequal, preferential conditions for small businesses, its rate or threshold may be revised. These measures, as the Minister pointed out, are taken into account by the government's program for 2021-2026, they will be developed and presented to the parliament next year.
Earlier, ArmInfo reported that the Armenian government plans to completely abandon the turnover tax and switch to a common taxation system. In parallel, the legislator proposed to introduce a different range of VAT rates (0%, 5%, 10%, 20%). The government of Armenia, represented by the Ministry of Economy, also proposed starting the mandatory declaration of income of individuals from January 1, 2022. This is stated in the Concept of Economic Policy developed by the Ministry of Economy of Armenia.
