When the population started to more or less trust the bonus system of the CMU receipts and collect receipts the government got quite encouraged. “The cart finally took off,” on September 10 said the Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan during the government session and added, “We may register that hence the RA citizens demand their receipts and make the system work.”
Indeed, everybody understood that the government is not a charitable organization and instead of the paid bonuses the government would receive additional tax inflows. On September 10, when the government made a decision to move the bonus expenses (in the amount of 543.5 million AMD) planned for the fourth quarter to the third quarter of 2009 (because 9 months wouldn’t be enough to suffice the demanded bonuses from the citizens), the Prime Minister stated, “In fact, by this decision we are saying that we have received more tax inflows to the State Revenue Committee (SRC) than we expected. 50 thousand citizens have received and will receive the bonuses. We are also registering that due to this program the SRC has received additional 5 billion AMD. It is quite clear that this function essentially conduces to the reduction of shady economy.” Thus, for a moment everybody thought that the “the state wins and so do you” formula works. For the moment, the only issue is that this “cart has started to swift forward” and the money wouldn’t be enough to pay the bonuses. However, no panic was felt in the words of the Prime Minister and there was no word about the possibility of freezing the process. “We expect that in the first quarter of 2010 we should undertake serious measures as in the fourth quarter the trade level always reaches its peak. It means that in the first quarter we will have over 50 thousand citizens, who will receive bonuses,” was saying Tigran Sargsyan on September 10. However, only one month after this speech on October 8 the lightning struck the open sky. The Prime Minister said, “I suggest that today we make another bold decision and that is refuse to provide any bonuses for the fourth quarter. So I suggest that we freeze this process for one quarter because the state needs serious preparation measures to annihilate the revealed omissions and flaws noticed in the process.” This was a cold shower for our counterparts, who were engaged in the “bonus games.” Moreover, it turned out that as the Prime Minister said the culprits are us, the people, who “always find some methods to swindle the rules and the state.” Let us recall that the main issue was connected with the fixed tax payers, who are indifferent about the receipts. So they’d print a receipt and give away to their employees as salaries. It turns out that now the state is trapped by enabling its own citizen receive money from the state. We were about the pity the state, which is being constantly swindled by its citizens. However, the government corrected its own mistake. First, as we mentioned, a decision was made to freeze the process. Of course for the Prime Minister the begged the pardon of the citizens but let us agree that the government is not an elevator out of work to apologize for temporary inconveniences. Secondly, they reduced the amount of the paid bonuses – 1% instead of the previous 3%. And thirdly, from now on bonuses will not be given to those receipts, given away from the communication sector, education and entrepreneurs working with fixed payments. Let us explain the official explanation of the government. For example, the barber shops are being taxed based on a fixed tax. Thus regardless of the number of the customers the owner of the barber shop pays a concrete amount of tax based on the number of the barber’s chair. Thus, here they can daily print out 100 receipts even if no customer shows up. For the entrepreneur this doesn’t affect the business because the income recount is not done and every month he/she pays a fixed amount to the SRC. Instead, for the receipts he/she can receive bonuses or as they say “grab money from the state.” And so in order to prevent this process the state has decided to struggle against this process by providing bonuses for the receipts received by income tax payers. But prior to that, the fixed tax payers benefited from this omission of the state. And by considering the fact that this circle is quite big (with a fixed tax are taxed for example subjects operating in the public sector, bathhouses, car body shops, gambling places, etc) it is hard to resist the temptation. And so the most interesting point is originated here. By not resisting the temptation, instead of swindling the state they trapped themselves. If the fixed tax payer is an entrepreneur then the printing of the receipt doesn’t remain without consequences. Indeed the entrepreneur doesn’t pay an income tax but pays social security payment at the end of the year. And at that time a lot of attention is paid to the receipts given away by him. Therefore, the more receipts he/she has given the more he/she will have to pay at the end of the year. Perhaps, a part of them has been aware of this so kept them away from dispersing receipts. But there are many others, who got trapped due to the lack of information – taxi drivers, hairdressers or tradesmen occupying an area of less than 7 square meters. And so these people will have to pay 3% of their annual circulation and will have to run here and there to find documentation to justify their expenses. And if we add to this the frustration of the receipt collectors we can imagine was the destiny of the “bonus cart” is.