Dominant NA faction torpedoes opposition`s bill abolishing individual  income statements 

ArmInfo.  The ruling Civil Contract faction of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia rejected the draft law on the abolition of the income declaration system for individuals proposed by the opposition Armenia faction at its session on April 15. Only 27 deputies voted for including the  issue on the agenda of the NA session, with 59 against and 1  abstention.

Introducing the initiative, Tadevos Avetisyan, a deputy from the  Armenia faction, noted that the system of universal income  declaration will not solve the problems existing in the country. It  does not meet the requirements of the day and will become a new  meaningless obligation for citizens of the country and a basis for  applying tax administration and imposing fines on them. Evidence of  this, as the speaker emphasized, is the postponement of the deadlines  for submitting declarations. According to the current situation, only  5% of citizens have submitted their applications. Avetisyan noted  that those citizens who work in the "shadow" will not present their  sources in the process of declaring their income. Thus, the claims  that the new system can allegedly reduce the scale of "shadow  employment" are false. And the fact that the lack of data will be  under the control of tax authorities continues to be controversial in  itself.  Moreover, all the data of working citizens is available in  the electronic database, and the innovation will not serve the stated  purposes. The deputy recalled that failure to submit declarations on  time entails the application of administrative liability, that is,  using a person as material for extorting money.

In turn, Narek Kahramanyan, a member of the National Assembly from  the ruling Civil Contract faction, noted that immediately after the  plenary session of the National Assembly, an extraordinary session  will be held, at which the deadline for submitting declarations will  be set - November 1. He noted that if citizens were just "material",  no comments would be applied in the first case of failure to submit  declarations, and in the second case - a fine of only 5 thousand  drams.

The law submitted by the country's authorities is aimed at solving  existing problems in the future. The RA National Assembly Economic  Affairs Committee gave a negative opinion on the document submitted  by the opposition, since the main goal of the universal income  declaration system is to increase the responsibility of citizens to  fulfill their tax obligations. The application of the universal  income declaration system will allow the government to more  effectively implement social policy. Within the framework of the  social credit program, 12 thousand citizens of the country have  already received funds.

Meanwhile, according to Artur Khachatryan, a member of the National  Assembly from the opposition faction "Armenia", the authorities want  to take control of the entire 300,000-strong army of migrant workers  who carry out their labor activities outside the country. He noted  that the ultimate goal of the government is to attract new tax  resources.

It was previously reported that the "Unified System of Electronic  Services for Individuals" implemented by the State Revenue Committee  is operating normally, and individuals are filing declarations. Thus,  as of February 19, 2025, 7,975 individuals (out of about 900 thousand  - ed.) filed annual declarations on personal income tax for the 2024  reporting year, and 1,975 individuals (out of about 120 thousand  declarants - ed.) for the 2023 reporting year.

The executive body assured that no changes were made to the tax  policy as part of the introduction of the declaration system: no  non-taxable income became taxable, no tax rate on taxable income was  increased.  Thus, the introduction of the declaration system did not  pursue the goal of increasing state budget revenues (by establishing  additional tax obligations or imposing fines). In general, the  government insisted that the introduction of a universal system of  declaring personal income will contribute to the formation of a  culture of paying taxes in society, especially given the fact that,  by submitting a declaration, citizens will learn about their nominal  income and the taxes withheld from it. 

The introduction of the system of universal declaration of income of  all citizens-residents of the republic began in 2023. The process is  organized in three stages, with each year the circle of people  required to submit a declaration increasing. The implementation of  the system will be completed in 2025. If you fail to submit your  annual tax return within the prescribed period, the tax service will  send you a warning. Then, if you fail to submit the return within 30  days after the warning is issued, you will have to pay a fine of  5,000 drams (50,000 for officials and businessmen), and after another  month - twice as much.