ArmInfo. Allocations to the State Revenue Committee (SRC) of Armenia will increase by 23 billion drams in 2026, reaching 139 billion drams. Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan announced this in parliament on October 28 during preliminary hearings of the draft 2026 state budget.
According to the minister, the increase is primarily due to the need to finance the income tax refund program for mortgage holders. Next year, the program's total budget is envisaged at 102 billion drams, or 18.8 billion drams more than this year. Of the 84.07 billion drams planned in the 2025 budget, 70.2 billion drams have already been spent on the mortgage interest refund process in the first nine months. This figure already exceeds the figure for the entire previous year (68.7 billion drams).
As Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan previously reported on social media, 62,139 citizens are beneficiaries of the program this year, which is 58,118, or 1,445%, more than the 4,021 beneficiaries in 2018. "As of the end of September 2025, the number of apartments and residential buildings purchased/under construction under this program was 46,056, which is 43,517 more than the number of apartments and residential buildings as of January 1, 2018 (2,539). This figure increased by 1,714%," he wrote.
As a reminder, approximately 97 billion drams ($252 million) will be required for income tax refunds to mortgage holders in 2025. This was announced by State Revenue Committee Chairman Eduard Hakobyan on October 2 at a government meeting, during which an additional 12.6 billion drams (approximately $33 million) was allocated for the program's implementation, in addition to the initially planned 84.07 billion drams ($218 million).
The program has been in effect since November 2014: citizens who purchase housing on the primary market with a mortgage (apartments in new buildings or new private homes) receive a tax refund equal to the mortgage interest.
While 273 million drams were allocated for income tax refunds in 2015, in 2022 the number of beneficiaries reached 29,199, with the refund amounting to 36.5 billion drams. In 2023, 38,911 beneficiaries received 51.9 billion drams. Overall, from 2015 to 2023, 141.1 billion drams were refunded from the state budget to citizens who took advantage of the income tax refund program. In 2024, this figure amounted to 68.6 billion drams.
It is worth noting that the gradual abolition of the mortgage income tax refund system began in Yerevan on July 1, 2022. The process began in the center of the capital and will be completed by 2025. In early 2024, the Armenian government proposed reducing the maximum income tax refund to mortgage holders-from the current 1.5 million drams (per quarter) to no more than 750,000 drams per mortgage transaction, effective January 1, 2025. Furthermore, the Armenian government plans to completely abolish income tax refunds for mortgages starting in 2029. The abolition will be gradual. Thus, after January 1, 2027, income tax on mortgages in the primary market will not be refunded if the property is located in the regions adjacent to Yerevan-Aragatsotn, Ararat, Armavir, and Kotayk. From January 1, 2029, tax refunds will also no longer apply to other regions. The restrictions will not apply to border settlements.
