Armenian business between devil and deep sea - businessman 

ArmInfo.  Co-founder, president of the Mantashyants Entrepreneurs Club Vahram Mirakyan once again addressed the topic of "tax terror" and the incompetent work of the  inspectors of the State Revenue Committee (SRC) of Armenia. He also  voiced his proposals aimed at eliminating the seizure and illegal  confiscation of property as a means of pressure on business, and  establishing fair and predictable mechanisms for resolving tax and  economic disputes. "Anyone who has ever encountered this knows how  our police and investigative services work. Or rather, how they do  not work. After a crime is reported, either nothing happens, or they  are focused on ensuring that there is no report, so that there is no  unsolved case.

Now the State Revenue Committee is giving our investigative services  a big gift for simulating work. Every year, it sends about a thousand  criminal cases against Armenian enterprises to the Investigative  Committee, and the Investigative Committee employees feel like Rambo,  entering homes or enterprises in masks, intimidating employees and  committing other similar anti-terrorist actions. True, in the end, in  most cases it turns out that the information was false or the degree  of violation was incorrect, but no one cares anymore," Mirakyan  writes on social media.

In particular, according to the head of the Matashyants club, about  1,000 enterprises in Armenia become the objects of criminal cases  every year, which is a terrifying indicator for the RA. For  comparison, in the US, 3-4 thousand criminal cases are initiated  against businesses annually, while in the US there are about 30  million enterprises, and in Armenia - about 70 thousand.

In addition, he notes, all entrepreneurs are in a vulnerable  position:   of illiterate State Revenue Committee inspectors, and on the other -  a rude, illiterate and disrespectful investigator with his harsh  actions>. And this is despite the fact that, according to statistics,  the State Revenue Committee loses most cases in court (about 80%  according to Mirakyan), and the results of the of the  investigator often do not live up to expectations.

The situation, the expert is convinced, is not only the result of  ineffective work, but a crisis of trust: the business community  begins to perceive the state not as a protector, but as a threat. In  such an atmosphere, investments do not come into the country, new  jobs are not created, and the economy weakens from within, he points  out. Vahram Mirakyan recalls that recently he, together with Arsen  Sardaryan, a lawyer at the LSA law firm, came up with a legislative  initiative aimed at resolving the situation. The draft law is  currently being discussed with various relevant bodies and has been  submitted to the National Assembly Economic Affairs Committee for  consideration.

According to the initiative, firstly, it proposes amending Article  290 of the Criminal Code, establishing that the threshold for  initiating criminal cases should not be 10 million, but rather 10% of  a company's turnover over the past three years, but no less than a  certain established threshold. Otherwise, with a threshold of 10  million, criminal cases could be initiated against virtually all  companies with a turnover of over 200-300 million, the head of the  Entrepreneurs' Club emphasizes.

The second proposal concerns the seizure and return of electronic  storage devices. "Since investigators generally don't care about the  damage they cause to the country and the economy, they hold onto  companies' computers for months and years without returning them. As  a result, on the one hand, they paralyze businesses, and on the  other, they force them to incur new expenses and purchase computers."  According to our proposal, investigators are required to return the  information media within three days," Mirakyan points out (the  initiators previously stated that they were proposing the following:  seizing information only based on a court decision, and then by  downloading it to physical media. If it is impossible to extract the  information contained on computers, the equipment must be returned  within a maximum of three days - editor's note).

And the third proposal is that if a company has cash flows that cover  the amount of the obvious violation, then no investigative actions  should be carried out without discussing the situation with the  business. "We need to change our approach to this issue, otherwise  the state will consider all entrepreneurs criminals. The state must  perceive entrepreneurs as partners, not enemies. Only then can we  build an economic environment based on trust, where both business and  the state benefit."

As a reminder, in 2024, the State Revenue Committee of Armenia  initiated amendments to the Tax Code aimed at abolishing incentive  provisions and establishing stricter criminal liability for tax  offenses. The Committee believed that this facilitates the commission  of tax crimes, and the legal basis for recognizing exemption from  criminal liability through compensation for property damage caused by  the crime hinders and prevents the commission of new tax crimes. The  initiator proposed establishing a penalty for tax offenses in the  form of imprisonment for a term of three years or more, if violations  amount to 10 million drams or more. The bill was met with an  extremely negative reception from the business community and expert  circles.