Azerbaijan - Totally Spread Tax Evasion

At today's press conference, Deputy Minister of Taxes Sahib Alekperov announced the volume of tax debts to the state budget of Azerbaijan - by April 1, they were more than 1.6 billion manat..

According to him, it is about one third or 800 million less than the beginning of the year. "Unfortunately, it is difficult to deal with the totality of the facts of deviation from payments - about 99% of tax audits reveal their perpetrators who are brought to administrative responsibility, so that there is no tax culture," he said.

The official stated that not only private owners, but even representatives of the oil industry "forget to pay taxes'. Nevertheless, the "champions" for non-payment are merchants, restaurateurs and other food service representatives, builders and those involved in show business - that is, those who deal with cash.

According to him, if an active transition to cashless payment system is undertaken, and inspection for the presence of taxpayer identification number registration with the tax authorities is enhanced, the facts of tax evasion will be reduced.

"We have submitted proposals to stimulate non-cash payments, in particular, offer to reduce VAT in such calculations to 9%, and expect approval of our initiatives," he concluded. --17D-