Tajikistan plans to lower some tax rates to the level of neighboring countries in order to lighten tax burden on private sector.
The draft new tax code, in particular, provides for lowering rates of two main taxes: value added tax (VAT) and income tax.
The tax code authors propose to lower VAT rate from current 18 percent to 15 percent.
Taking into account recommendations of international specialists, they also propose to lower the rate of social tax for insurers (employers) from current 25 percent to 20 percent.
Besides, international financial institutions advise to set the flat income tax at the rate of 12 percent.
Under the current tax legislation, income tax is paid at the rate of 8 percent for incomes above personal deduction (a calculation index) up to 140 somoni and at the rate of 13 percent for incomes above 140 somoni.
The draft new tax code also provides for raising the rate of personal deduction from monthly wage from one to two calculation indices. The current calculation index amounts to 58.00 somoni.
Besides, the draft new tax code provides for setting a flat rate of the gross income tax for business entities at 18 percent.
Current rates of profit tax are 13 percent for producers of goods and 23 percent for other categories of taxpayers.
The new tax code authors also propose to set the profit tax for mobile phone companies and subsoil users at the rate of 20 percent and for betting and lottery activities at the rate of 25 percent.
Besides, the draft new tax code provides for exempting newly established industrial production facilities and the active enterprises injecting additional capital into their statutory funds from paying profit tax (simplified tax) during five years.
To promote enterprises engaged in full cotton processing the draft new tax code proposes to provide a 12 year grace period to them.
