ArmInfo. The Armenian government will support companies and individual entrepreneurs in the IT sector. The corresponding procedure was approved on March 24 at a government meeting.
According to the head of the State Revenue Committee Rustam Badasyan, the decision, subject to the satisfaction of certain requirements, provides for the return to IT companies of 50 percent of the income tax paid for new jobs. Thus, the authors of the bill pursue two goals. "Firstly, we have a large group of freelancers who work in the shadows, that is, at home, work under various contracts with foreign organizations or foreign clients and are in the shadows. We offer such conditions that, in case of registration and legal activities, they will be able to take advantage of state social loans. In this case, it will be more profitable to be registered than to be unregistered," Badasyan explained.
Secondly, as the head of the State Revenue Committee pointed out, different countries are struggling to keep highly qualified IT specialists within the country, the competition in the field is strong. In particular, there are different types of benefits, both in European countries and in the CIS countries. In particular, there are various mechanisms for providing benefits to the IT sector in Uzbekistan and Georgia.
"We would like to make Armenian IT companies competitive in the market," he said. The chief tax officer presented the conditions for granting benefits. "The activities of commercial organizations and individual entrepreneurs should be carried out by classifiers related to the field of information technology. From March 1, the number of jobs should increase by at least 50; I mean both labor and civil law contracts. For the last 6 months prior to March 1, income tax for these 50 jobs should not be paid. We are talking about new jobs. They also should not have tax liabilities exceeding 100,000 drams. If these conditions are met, both existing and newly established companies who create 50 new jobs will receive 50% of income tax as state assistance, which will allow them to regulate employer-employee relations and provide good conditions for IT specialists. The Ministry of High-Tech Industry will be the authorized body that will return income tax" he concluded.
