Indeed, there might be different estimations, criticisms about the functioning of the RA TB, on the other hand, the tax sphere is one of the few sectors that carried out its functions appropriately. Thus, instead of the planned tax inflow of 173.6 billion AMD the TB has collected 173.714 billion AMD. According to the report, compared to 2004, the state inflow was more by 31.68 billion. That is, there was a 22,3% increase in tax inflow. Tsolakyan mentioned that the growth of tax inflows was balanced and stable, which is important for the implementation of the state budget. It’s also worth mentioning that, during the last years, there was the highest inflow of profit tax (26,9%); the VAT tax (26,5%) occupies the second place and the third is the income tax (15,3%). The fixed taxes amounted to 7,5% of the general tax inflow.
During the previous year, there were about 30.000 unregistered workers. As a method of fighting against a black market, a decision to install cash registers was made at the right time. During the year 3.000 cash registers were installed, which according to Tsolakyan is not sufficient. In terms of the black market, there are serious issues in mining, and landscaping. Regarding the first one, the TB is planning to cooperate with the RA Ministry of Environmental Protection. Tsolakyan, mentioned that there are issues in the transportation sector as well and particularly in the inter-republic transportation: “we have growth here, however we are not satisfied with it, as we know, that in addition to that we have the black market,” says the head of the TB.
Tsolakyan said, “We are a mono-ethnic republic, due to our customs, traditions and everything. As long as there is a phenomenon in Armenia according to which someone becomes someone’s godfather, close relationship is established, we might have cases like this. Almost everyday we receive calls from friends and relatives to cover them. It’s one thing when you support them, it’s another thing when you reject.”
It was mentioned that within the year 2005, the TB conducted 44 investigations to find out cases of such action, as a result, 700 tax inspectors were reprimanded.
There was a question regarding the 300 largest taxpayers. There are opinions that certain businessmen occupy a lower position on this list than they are supposed to.
Tsolakyan, did not exclude cases that many businessmen report less income than they really make. However, he confessed that sometimes the tax bodies are not capable of fully investigating those cases. “We also sometimes have presumptions that certain businessmen report less income. Currently we’re stepping into an era of literate businessmen. Before our inspection a number of serious auditors conduct inspections in large companies. They show us corrected data and we have serious issues regarding the quality of inspections,” confessed Tsolakayn.
According to the head of TB, the publication of the list of the 300 largest taxpayers also has positive effects. Certain businessmen were encouraged to occupy a higher place in the list by trying to pay more taxes.
Tsolakyan pledged that, in the future they will publicize other lists. In particular, besides the list of 300 largest taxpayers, it is also planned to publicize the customs payments. In that case, many businessmen who were not able to be in the list of 300 taxpayers could take part in the customs list.