ArmInfo.The "Strong Armenia" party, led by renowned businessman and philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan, is proposing to apply a zero tax rate to small businesses. Narek Karapetyan, a board member of the party, stated this in an interview with Armenia TV.
According to him, existing banking and information technology mechanisms will make it easy to control the risks associated with the possible splitting of medium-sized enterprises into small ones and the transfer of some businesses into the shadow economy. The banking system will make it possible to track financial flows. The tax service currently deals with approximately 70,000 small businesses, collecting only 2-2.5% of all taxes. Exempting small businesses from taxes will provide an opportunity to address two issues: bringing medium and large businesses into the tax framework, ensuring transparency, and addressing the transparency issue of reclassifying small businesses as medium-sized businesses. Other tax incentives, as well as mechanisms for attracting preferential loans, will be available during the transition to medium-sized businesses. "We must not pursue the path of restrictions and pressure, but offer attractive offers. The current situation, in which multi-million dollar fines and penalties are accrued, must be replaced by mechanisms for attractive offers," Narek Karapetyan said.
He added that Samvel Karapetyan's program envisages the construction of 20,000 apartments for young and large families. Yerevan is currently experiencing a significant increase in real estate prices, making the cost per square meter of housing prohibitive for young families. The party believes the solution lies in planning the construction of neighborhoods on state and community lands. This approach will address several objectives: demographic as new apartments may encourage families to have a third child; seismic, as much of the current housing stock is unsafe and requires renovation. Finally, the project should also be considered as a way to create new jobs, preventing people from becoming migrant workers in other countries, and instead focusing on solving issues at home.
