Arrest of businessmen for tax evasion to cause more harm to state -  businessman 

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  .