ArmInfo. The arrest of a businessman for tax evasion brings more harm to the state than good. This point of view was expressed on a social network by the co-founder and head of the Union of Entrepreneurs Vahram Mirakyan, once again touching upon the draft law proposed by the State Revenue Committee of the Republic of Armenia to abolish incentive norms and establish stricter criminal liability for tax violations.
Earlier, ArmInfo reported that the SRC, in particular, proposes to recognize Part 5 of Article 290, which allows economic entities that have committed violations to avoid criminal liability by paying the amount, as invalid. The initiator proposed to establish punishment for tax violations in the form of imprisonment for a term of 3 years or more, in the event of violations amounting to 10 million drams or more. The bill was met with extreme negative reactions from the business community and expert circles.
Vahram Mirakyan insists that by arresting a businessman for tax evasion, the State Revenue Committee harms the state.
After 2 months of detention and trial, the businessman pays the 100 million drams demanded by the State Revenue Committee, the State Revenue Committee inspector receives his reward, and the businessman is released from prison.
Then the businessman goes to court, proves that the tax violation was 20 million drams, not 80, and gets his money back. But the process lasted 2 years, the tax inspector has long since received his bonuses, moved to another job or went to Los Angeles to drive Uber>, - Mirakyan noted.
Meanwhile, the head of the Union notes that a businessman cannot be arrested for tax violations for a number of reasons. Firstly, the only task of the tax inspector is to fulfill his plan (sometimes there is also a corrupt interest), therefore the inspector is an interested party and cannot be neutral, which is why the businessman should not be arrested on the basis of the inspector's preliminary tax calculation. Otherwise, the arrest turns into a blackmail tool in the hands of an interested party - the inspector, who uses it in his own interests and against the businessman. In addition, the arrest of businessman X, who, for example, has 10 stores and paid taxes to the state in the amount of 200 million drams per year, risks losing his suppliers during the period of his detention, since the latter in turn may refuse to supply him with goods due to fear of possible bankruptcy of their counterparty. As a result, if earlier this businessman paid 20 million drams in taxes every month, then due to the problems that arose during the 2 months of the businessman's arrest, the amount of the tax paid is reduced to 10 million drams per month, and sometimes - even . It also happens that after such the business changes its mind about working in Armenia and moves to another - freer country.
The point of the story is that the businessman creates benefits, and we must help him with this, and if he made a mistake or deceived the state, say, by 20 million drams, he will be obliged to pay an amount of, say, 30 million, but on the basis of a court decision, and not arrest without arrest, since in the latter case the state loses more than those 20 million>, - Vahram Mirakyan summed up.
Responding to the concerns of the business community, the head of the State Revenue Committee, Rustam Badasyan, in a conversation with journalists the other day noted that due to the presence of this article (Part 5 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia - ed.), the competitive environment in the republic has been undermined. , - asks Badasyan.
In response to a remark about how fair it is to deprive citizens of their freedom for a term of three years or more for a violation in the amount of 10 million drams, the chief tax officer said: . At the same time, as Badasyan noted, there is no criminal liability for accidental, technical and unintentional errors, which many of the project's counterparts .
