ArmInfo.Offshore schemes are quite widespread in Armenia. Head of the State Revenue Committee (SRC) Rustam Badasyan made a similar assessment in an interview with Armenian Public TV.
"The thing is that, the country may not be an offshore one, but the agreement concluded with it on the avoidance of double taxation may provide certain advantages, Badasyan pointed out. The purpose of these agreements is to eliminate double taxation in foreign trade between the two states, prevent tax discrimination against economic entities of the parties, eliminate double taxation on property and income, and create a predictable and stable tax environment for business. But there are situations when these agreements are applied in such a way that it results in double : neither here nor there is tax charged.
"We conducted a study for 2019-2021 and recorded that over a period of about 3 years, non-residents are paid income in the amount of 616 billion drams from Armenia, which is either not taxed or taxed at reduced rates. Moreover, in this data there are definitely cases when they are not taxed on both sides," Badasyan noted.
In particular, Badasyan emphasized, double taxation exclusion agreements concluded with the United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg and Cyprus cause serious problems. "We have a preliminary estimate of what the losses may be. According to strictly preliminary estimates, about 50-60 billion drams should be taxed," the chief tax officer of the Republic of Armenia pointed out. Armenia has concluded agreements on the exclusion of double taxation with approximately 50 countries around the world.
