Ministry of Taxes of Azerbaijan Cancels Tax Sanctions Assigned to Turan News Agency for 2014-2016

Baku / 15.09.17 / Turan: The Baku City Local Income Department of the Ministry of Taxes of Azerbaijan canceled the additional taxes accrued by it to the Turan news agency for the years 2014-2016. Along with fines, these additional taxes amounted to 37,000 manat (22,000 dollars). The department took this decision on the basis of the desk audit results. The department has notified the Turan news agency of this by an official letter.

It was the decision to charge additional taxes for 2014-2016 on August 7, 2017, which was used by the Department for Preliminary Investigation of Tax Crimes to start a criminal case against Turan on the same day. On August 16 the Turan news agency's office was searched, and the accounting documents and electronic media related to its financial activities were seized.

Two days later, on August 18, a decision was made to extend the tax audit period from July 1, 2010 to July 1, 2017.

On August 25, after the arrest of the Turan news agency's director Mehman Aliyev, the Ministry of Taxes distributed a press release, in which the journalist was charged with the appearance of "reasonable suspicions of concealment of taxes in the amount of 60,080 manat from payment to the state budget in 2010-2016 by the distortion of data in the tax return on profit." However, the basis for these suspicions was not clear, since the investigation failed to provide an act of the results of the previously appointed on-site inspection of the Turan news agency's financial activities. The Turan news agency was also not provided with any documents on the charge of an additional tax in this amount for the period of 2010-2016.

From the very outset the Turan news agency rejected the accusations of non-payment of taxes and immediately filed a complaint in connection with the unjustified accrual of additional taxes for 2014-2016 to Baku Administrative Economic Court No. 1, which appointed the hearing only on September 27.

Earlier, in May, the Local Income Department already charged the Turan news agency with 4,000 manat of additional taxes for the year 2016. However, after the Turan news agency's administrative complaint, the higher instance, i.e. the Ministry of Taxes, canceled this decision. Subsequently, on August 7, the same department already charged 9,000 manat of taxes for the year 2016 and 37,000 manat for the years 2014-2016. Now, after Mehman Aliyev was released from custody, the Local Income Department abolished this decision, which served as a basis for initiating a criminal case against the news agency.

Thus, with the cancellation of the decision to charge additional taxes for 2014-2016 the criminal case against the Turan news agency has been deprived of its legal basis. -06B--