Tax amnesty to cover more than 42,000 businessmen

By Azernews

By Amina Nazarli

The tax amnesty to be applied in Azerbaijan from January 1, 2017 will cover more than 42,000 representatives of the private sector.

Zeynalabdin Mammadzade, the head of the analysis of tax crimes and collection of tax debt department, announced about this during a briefing on December 26.

A corresponding bill, which is recommended for discussion at the plenary session of the Parliament, was developed on the initiative of the president. Overall, the bill will allow writing off taxes of more than 44,000 taxpayers.

"This practice is regularly used in Turkey. The most recent law was adopted in August 2016. According to international practice, a tax amnesty allows not only to stimulate entrepreneurial activity and save enough funds for entrepreneurs to expand their activities, but also creates additional opportunities for increased economic activity and boosts role of entrepreneurs in the trading activity of the country. Ultimately, all these create opportunities for entrepreneurs to pay taxes in a timely manner hereupon," he said.

Starting January 1, the government plans to write off 624 million manats ($358 million) tax debts of the country’s citizens. This decision is reflected in the draft law "On regulation of tax debts of taxpayers on January 1, 2017".

The bill covers two types of tax debts: the first article of the bill envisages cancellation of all interest accrued for non-payment of debt, and the second article - writing-off of the financial sanctions.

In case of repayment of one third of the financial sanctions during January 2017, remaining 70 percent will be written off. In case of repayment of half of tax sanctions during January-February, other 50 percent will be written off, while if 70 percent of financial sanctions during repaid in January-March, remaining 30 percent will be written off.

From active debts 386.4 million manats including debts of the public sector representatives (125.5 million manats) will be written off.

The total tax debt in Azerbaijan amounts to 1,527 billion manats ($851 million), including active debt - 386.4 million manats ($215 million) and financial sanctions - 237.1 million manats ($132 million).