ArmInfo. Armenia will soften its approach to initiating criminal cases against businesses for tax evasion. At its April 8 meeting, the RA National Assembly Committee on Economic Affairs issued a positive opinion on the amendments to the Tax Code submitted by the RA government.
According to Eduard Hakobyan, Chairman of the RA State Revenue Committee, it is proposed, in particular, to abandon the practice of automatically transferring materials to the Investigative Committee. Violations will initially be reviewed by tax authorities, with an inspection, the preparation of a report, and the possibility of appeal. It is expected that some cases will be resolved without criminal prosecution: of the approximately 600 cases per year, about half will be transferred to the administrative-tax level. This will reduce the burden on law enforcement agencies and businesses.
At the same time, the thresholds for qualifying non-payment as large-scale and especially large-scale tax evasion are being raised. For "large-scale" tax evasion, the threshold will increase from 10 million to 30 million drams per year and to 45 million over three years. For "especially large-scale" tax evasion, it will increase from 20 million to 50 million drams per year and to 75 million over three years.
Furthermore, it is proposed to limit the use of property seizure. Investigators or courts will be able to replace it with a financial guarantee, including government bonds, which will allow companies to avoid withdrawing funds from circulation.
