Azerbaijani Taxes Ministry puts forward requirements to country’s religious communities

Some media reports claim the Taxes Ministry demands religious figures to pay taxes.

“These reports are false. We do not demand religious figures to pay taxes. We just demand religious communities to register with taxes agencies,” he said.

“Many religious communities have registered with governmental agencies, but not tax agencies. It is often motivated with the statement that they are free from taxation and therefore they do not need to get registered,” Samadov added.

“This is plainly not the right approach, since the exemption from tax payments is a secondary issue. The first step is to get registered with tax agencies and then we will consider whether a person (physical person or legal entity) is free from taxation or not,” he added.

“So I repeat once again that taxation of individuals is not the main point. It is a requirement to get registered as religious people are included in religious communities and religious communities, in turn, may have employees, for example, accountants and other employees under an employment contract who, in turn, are obliged to pay income tax,” the spokesperson said.

/Day.Az/