YEREVAN, February 5. /ARKA/. “When we talk about access to bank secrecy of a person, we mean the amount of his/her transactions. There is no access to the details of the transactions,” the head of Armenian State Revenue Committee (SRC) Eduard Hakobyan told a parliamentary discussion today on the universal income declaration.
He added that his agency does not have permanent access to this sort of information, which can be obtained only during inspections, when a citizen is approached with a request or demand to provide limited information. If the citizen refuses, the SRC can get access to it through the court.
At a news briefing, Hakobyan told reporters that no one has access to the information held by the SRC.
“Our servers are protected. There have never been cases of our taxpayers’ data ending up in the hands of fraudsters,” he said.
The phased introduction of the universal income declaration was launched in January , 2023 for three years for all adult resident citizens.
In the first stage, declarations were submitted by citizens holding public positions and their family members and individuals involved in entrepreneurial activities.
In the second phase, launched in 2024, declarations were to be completed by private sector employees and employees who received income under civil law contracts.
From 2025, all those citizens-residents of the country who were not included in the above two groups will have to submit their declarations.
Citizens were obliged to submit their declarations by May 1 of each year following the reporting year, but in 2025 the deadline was extended to November 1. In case of evasion and late submission, fines are envisaged – 50 thousand drams for entrepreneurs, 5 thousand drams for other citizens.
With a set of amendments to the Tax Code coming into force from April 2024, the State Revenue Committee got access to the bank accounts of citizens. Within 3 working days after receiving the request of the tax authority, the taxpayer is obliged to submit a bank account statement, as well as consent to receive confirmation of its accuracy from the bank. Liability measures are provided for taxpayers who fail to fulfill this legal requirement.
The information will include “data on the taxpayer’s bank account, including in foreign currency, the balance as of January 1 and December 31 of the tax year, as well as the total amount deposited in the bank account and the total amount withdrawn from the account during the tax year.
The rationale for the law states that “the information is collected as part of tax control and for the purpose of risk assessment.” -0-
