Tehran, Iran, Aug.14
Trend:
Iranian banks should impose taxes on clients that own high income accounts and have possibility to violate the country's tax administration, former CEO of Saderat Bank Seyed Bahaedin Hosseini Hashemi told Trend.
"The concept of tax is the basis of profit in the whole world, which means the individuals with high income should pay taxes according to international norms," he said.
"Although there have been discussions over imposing taxes on bank accounts but so far the case has not been represented," he noted.
"Some of such high-income clients do not have financial records or statements, so identifying them through the tax administration is difficult, and they always resist the tax payments, which in turn, causes social conflicts," he explained.
He went on to speak about the renting of bank accounts in the country.
"Most of people who put up their bank accounts for rent, are unemployed or do not have sufficient income. So, to escape taxes, they rent their accounts and transfer high amounts of funds to them, register checkbooks in the name of the account owner, but all the money goes into their own pocket," he said.
"If individuals become aware of the punishment for these violations, maybe they would not cooperate with tax debtors. But the unawareness has created motivations for them to rent their accounts, ranging from 10 million rials ($238) to 20 million rials ($476) per month," he said.