Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.23
Trend:
On Friday 13 January, EY Azerbaijan held its annual Tax & Legal Update seminar for clients at the Boulevard Hotel Baku, Autograph Collection. The seminar was led by recognized EY tax & law professionals, including Arzu Hajiyeva, EY Tax & Law Partner; Zaur Gurbanov, EY Tax Senior Manager; Zaur Mammadov, EY Tax Manager; and Nargiz Balakishiyeva, EY Tax & Law Senior. Around 150 participants from major companies operating in various sectors of the economy attended. The seminar opened with a welcoming speech by Arzu. This was followed by presentations on tax and legal updates and their practical implementation.
Zaur Mammadov commented in his speech on recent amendments made to the Tax Code of the Azerbaijan Republic in respect of the conduct of electronic tax audits, desk audit limitations, the issuance of e-invoices), cash withdrawals by legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, and other issues. During the presentation, he highlighted: “To summarize the discussions, along with the new desk audit limitation period of no more than 30 business days after the submission of tax returns, the current amendments introduce the definition of an ‘electronic audit’. Thus, according to the new provision, an electronic audit is a tax inspection conducted through remote or direct access to the taxpayer’s financial (accounting) data using special software. Apart from these items, other new provisions of the Tax Code stipulate the rules for the mandatory issuance of e-invoices to legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. In particular, e-invoices should be provided in respect of the sale of goods and provision of services/ works to legal entities and individual entrepreneurs.”
The presentations and discussions provided insights into recent changes in tax legislation, focusing on global trends such as transfer pricing, advance tax rulings, anti-avoidance rules, and other issues.
The seminar then continued with a focus on recent market trends that impact various areas of business, including cashless payments, e-invoices, and e-commerce.
Seminar participants asked questions throughout the seminar and gave positive feedback about the presentation, showing appreciation for the work EY did as host of the event.
“Considering the huge number of changes made to legislation, it was very important for us to participate in this training held by EY. As a Tax Manager at Huawei, I would say that the scope and structure of the presentation were of a very high quality and covered all the major areas. Huge thanks go to Arzu for inviting me and to Zaur for an interesting presentation,” shared Farid Najafov, Tax Manager at Huawei Technologies Azerbaijan.
“The whole tax seminar was organized to a high quality, covering all the required explanations of the new amendments made to the TCA effective from 1 January 2017. I believe that this presentation was very helpful to taxpayers who participated in it to help them understand the changes and interpret them correctly. The invitation to the seminar is highly appreciated by myself and I wish you success in your further activities,” said Hamid Aghahuseynov, Tax Accountant at Topaz Marine.
EY was delighted to see all the participants at the seminar and would like to thank each of them for their enthusiastic participation!
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EY in Azerbaijan
EY made a major commitment to the development of Azerbaijan and the region by opening the office in Baku 22 years ago. Today, in addition to being the leading audit and consulting firm in Azerbaijan, we are the leading firm in the region. As a result of our experience and competence, we have been able to assist both domestic and international companies as well as state-owned entities to develop and manage the challenges of the international economy.
There are currently 170 people working in our Baku office that serve our clients in Azerbaijan. EY's strength in the Caspian Region and the firm's commitment of resources are important to the entities operating in the region. It means that as we grow, EY will continue to demonstrate a tradition of hiring and training local professionals to be leaders in our practice.