Finance ministry downplays reports on Armenia’s possible inclusion on EU's blacklist of tax havens
28.11.2017,
16:57
The Bloomberg news agency reported recently that the European Union may include Armenia on a blacklist of tax havens as soon as next month along with Panama, Tunisia, Turkey, the Marshall Islands and tens of other countries.
YEREVAN, November 27. /ARKA/. The Bloomberg news agency reported recently that the European Union may include Armenia on a blacklist of tax havens as soon as next month along with Panama, Tunisia, Turkey, the Marshall Islands and tens of other countries. According to Bloomberg, the so-called Code of Conduct group could recommend to EU finance ministers to add non-compliant countries to a blacklist on December 5. It said also that while EU countries are split over whether financial sanctions should be used against such uncooperative jurisdictions, several states, including France, support punitive measures, such as the exclusion from international funding. ARKA news agency asked Nairuhi Avetisyan, the head of a department on international tax and customs relations at the Ministry of Finance, to comment on the possibility of Armenia's inclusion on EU's "black list."
ARKA: Is there any ground for Armenia to be included on EU’s blacklist of tax havens?
N. Avetisyan - Since January 2017 Armenia has been in active dialogue with the experts of the Code of Conduct from the European Union's Council. In particular, we provided them with exhaustive answers to all their questions. Concurrently, there are realistic deadlines for us to bring all existing inconsistencies in line with the standards of the Code of Conduct, if necessary. Therefore, it is too early to talk about including Armenia in the list.
ARKA – What can you say about the level of financial transparency in Armenia?
N. Avetisyan - The assessment of Armenia's financial transparency is beyond the powers of the Ministry of Finance. This is up to the Central Bank. As for tax transparency, Armenia is one of 147 members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Developments Global Forum on Tax Transparency and Information Sharing. Naturally, membership in this forum suggests that Armenia should comply with its mandatory standards on taxes and information exchange. Nevertheless, this is a consistent process, and work is currently underway to join the system for automatic exchange of tax information. At the same time, Armenia has joined a number of other agreements on exchange of information according to accepted international standards.
ARKA - Which international obligations in the sphere of taxation are observed by Armenia and to what extent?
N. Avetisyan - Armenia actively participates in international tax relations both in bilateral formats and on the multilateral level. In particular, regarding tax cooperation, Armenia has adopted numerous agreements regulating both tax policy and tax administration issues. Regarding international tax cooperation between Armenia and other countries, there have never been problems. As said above, Armenia is a member of the OECD's Global Forum on Tax Transparency and Information Sharing. Not being a member of OECD/ G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Package, Armenia nonetheless is actively involved in its programs. In the near future some functions of BEPS are to be incorporated in Armenia’s tax legislation. By the way, the Armenian government's plan of actions for 2017-2021 envisages some of the current trends of the international tax policy. -0-
ARKA: Is there any ground for Armenia to be included on EU’s blacklist of tax havens?
N. Avetisyan - Since January 2017 Armenia has been in active dialogue with the experts of the Code of Conduct from the European Union's Council. In particular, we provided them with exhaustive answers to all their questions. Concurrently, there are realistic deadlines for us to bring all existing inconsistencies in line with the standards of the Code of Conduct, if necessary. Therefore, it is too early to talk about including Armenia in the list.
ARKA – What can you say about the level of financial transparency in Armenia?
N. Avetisyan - The assessment of Armenia's financial transparency is beyond the powers of the Ministry of Finance. This is up to the Central Bank. As for tax transparency, Armenia is one of 147 members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Developments Global Forum on Tax Transparency and Information Sharing. Naturally, membership in this forum suggests that Armenia should comply with its mandatory standards on taxes and information exchange. Nevertheless, this is a consistent process, and work is currently underway to join the system for automatic exchange of tax information. At the same time, Armenia has joined a number of other agreements on exchange of information according to accepted international standards.
ARKA - Which international obligations in the sphere of taxation are observed by Armenia and to what extent?
N. Avetisyan - Armenia actively participates in international tax relations both in bilateral formats and on the multilateral level. In particular, regarding tax cooperation, Armenia has adopted numerous agreements regulating both tax policy and tax administration issues. Regarding international tax cooperation between Armenia and other countries, there have never been problems. As said above, Armenia is a member of the OECD's Global Forum on Tax Transparency and Information Sharing. Not being a member of OECD/ G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Package, Armenia nonetheless is actively involved in its programs. In the near future some functions of BEPS are to be incorporated in Armenia’s tax legislation. By the way, the Armenian government's plan of actions for 2017-2021 envisages some of the current trends of the international tax policy. -0-
