ArmInfo.In Europe and in the developed countries of the world, one out of 40 small businesses becomes large, while in Armenia, out of 500 small companies, only onegrows. Minister of Economy of Armenia Vahan Kerobyan announced to journalists on July 20.
Asked if there are concerns about changes in the tax sector regarding small businesses that have changed the field of taxation, the minister noted that the only concern on the part of SMEs is that very few of them want to grow.
According to Kerobyan, the <motivation> of the latter is the desire not to leave the favorable tax environment. "We are trying with the Ministry of Finance and the State Revenue Committee to create a mechanism that will not turn the tax environment for SMEs into a comfort zone from which they do not want to leave. It is important for us that our companies or founders initially think about the market more than Armenian one. Concentration only on the Armenian market is essentially not the future. And today, one of our potential actions for economic growth is the internationalization of companies>, the head of the department explained his opinion.
In this direction, the Ministry intends to create incentives so that companies do not want to stay in the comfort zone.
Kerobyan referred in this regard to small countries, including Switzerland, Israel, where companies from the first day of their establishment are aimed at conquering the world. "And our goal is to achieve a similar vision for our companies as well," he concluded.
In Armenia, micro-enterprises, defined as enterprises with a y-o-y revenue of less than 24 million drams, are exempt from CIT (collective income tax) and VAT (value added tax).
In February, the State Revenue Committee of Armenia announced that from July 1, 2023, microbusiness entities are not exempt from the obligation to calculate income tax on income paid to individuals as tax agents. And from July 1, 2023, instead of 5,000 drams per month, income tax on income paid or accrued to employees engaged in micro-business, will be calculated at a general rate of 20%
It should be noted that according to the data of the Ministry of Economy of Armenia, the share of SMEs in Armenia's GDP is about 27%. The Ministry plans to bring this figure up to 50% within the next 5 years.
