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Iran can receive more tax revenues despite coronavirus pandemic

Commentary Materials 4 May 2020 10:38 (UTC +04:00)
Iran can receive more tax revenues despite coronavirus pandemic

TEHRAN, Iran, May 4

Trend:

Iran should develop tax policy to obtain revenues despite coronavirus pandemic, said an expert in Iranian National Tax Administration.

Siyavash Gheybipour has discussed the issue of tax revenues in current Iranian year (started March 20, 2020) in an interview with Trend.

"The country's budget always has fluctuation, but this fiscal year it is facing two main challenges including tax revenues and oil sale price crash; however, the average fluctuation has always being calculated and it's too soon to forecast the situation," he said. "The possible tax recession following the coronavirus spread will be a serious challenge, but in case there is a boom in businesses during second half of the year, there will be no concerns."

"The country's general budget is heavily based on taxes; it is estimated to obtain $41 billion from taxes, but this amount may not be collected in the current situation," the expert said.

"The short-term plans in other countries are an example for increasing tax incomes; thus, the experience in the US over reviewing taxes during the year can be seen as an example," he added. "The other issues are the increase of taxes of empty houses, and the consistency of tax collection from bank transactions."

"The Iranian National Tax Administration can focus on reducing artists' tax exemptions that have high revenues or some guilds that are not paying any taxes," he said. "While production is always supported by the government, some cases of exemption create discrimination: for example, a worker with salary of 30 million rials [about $741] has to pay taxes, and others having multibillion rials of revenues do not pay any."

"Recently, good regulations related to tax have been drafted to prevent tax evasion according to which all organizations are obliged to provide information about their economic activities to the Iranian National Tax Administration," he added.

"The value of evaded tax amounts to around $23 billion in Iran, the taxes collected have reached $2 billion. It is necessary to combat tax evasion, and obtaining data on taxpayers will improve tax collection and reduce tax evasion," he said.

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