Head of the Tax Committee under the Government of Tajikistan, Nusratullo Davlatzoda, proposes to collect taxes from all electronic servers, including Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, eBay, Aliexpress, Yahoo, etc. According to him, this move will help replenish the country’s budget significantly.
“Time has come to take necessary measures to regulate all actions being implemented through Internet. It is necessary to make changes to the tax code providing for payment of value added tax (VAT) for foreign companies rendering electronic services to physical entities,” Davlatzoda notes in his letter to President Emomali Rahmon.
Tajik chief tax officer says in his letter that payment of VAT by the mentioned companies will be an additional receipt to the country’s budget.
As an example Davlatzoda referred to Russia that had obliged foreign companies rendering electronic services and content to pay VAT.
According to him, VAT paid by Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, eBay, Aliexpress, Yahoo, Bing and other companies have replenished the Russian national budget with 2 billion Russian rubles over three months.
Davlatzoda notes that “electronic sphere of activity is not controlled in Tajikistan.”
“People buy air tickets, games, books, book hotels through Internet and bring profit to foreign companies while it is impossible to levy taxes on them because of gaps in our legislation,” Tajik chief tax officer says in his letter.
As an example he refers to websites of Internet shops such as mango.tj, volna.tj, megamag.tj, duexpress.tj.
“It is necessary to control these serves and raise prices for using them,” Davlatzoda notes.
He also points to the necessity of controlling transfer of money to offshore zones and proposes to review agreements on avoidance of double taxation signed with 32 countries.
Davlatzoda also proposes to raise cost for activity permit. Current cost for activity permit is 500.00 somoni.
Meanwhile, according to the amendments made to the first and second parts of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, foreign companies rendering electronic services and content are obliged to pay VAT starting from January 1, 2017.
The law, in particular, classifies electronic services as granting of rights through Internet to use computer programs. Such programs include games, databases, advertising services and announcements, electronic resources support, electronic books, music and video content etc.
Russian experts say these amendments, considering the global experience, make the working conditions of the Russian and foreign Internet-companies equal and may promote the annual replenishment of the country’s budget amounting to about 10 billion Russian rubles.
