Tax Amnesty - Measure of Short-sightedness of Government - Expert

The government cannot plan for 5-10 years in advance; moreover, it cannot plan for 5 days in advance, proof of which is the tax amnesty initiative, the economist Natig Jafarli said.

On his profile on Facebook, Jafarli noted that the initiative of tax amnesty at first sight looks positive in favor of citizens and entrepreneurs, but in fact it is not.

“If the government has conceived a tax amnesty, why did not they consider this when making the budget? The state budget was adopted just five days ago, and they made up the parameters, revenues and expenses. AZN 624 million, which fall under the amnesty, have been included in the tax forecast,” he said.

The economist believes that before the tax amnesty there should be announced financial amnesty and legalization of the shadow economy. A large part of the funding received by corruption and other illegal means should be returned to the budget, and the other part should come under the amnesty. Only after this a tax amnesty should be declared.

“The most important thing is that all should be done after the change in political governance. In parallel with the financial and tax amnesty the laws on lustration and rehabilitation should be passed. The officials, who are involved in corruption, should be removed from their posts. The property, which for many years was taken from citizens, should be returned to them through the rehabilitation,” Jafarli said.

Jafarli stressed that if AZN 624 million is included in the tax forecast, now the Parliament should either amend the state budget, or this amount will be collected from businesses, whose situation is not the best now.

Note that according to the bill ‘On the tax amnesty,’ which is considered by the Parliamentary Committee on Economy, Enterprise and Industry, if a taxpayer pays 30% in January 2017, 50% in February, and 70% of the tax debt in March, the rest will be amnestied.    ----71D