Azerbaijan To Replicate EU Indirect Tax Laws

by Tatiana Smolenska, Tax- News.com, Moscow

05 September 2014

A senior Azerbaijan tax official, in an interview with Azerbaijani media, has announced that the nation is working to harmonize its indirect tax law with that of the European Union.

Natig Shirinov, Tax Policy and Strategic Studies Chief at the Ministry of Taxes, explained that preparatory work has begun to analyze seven EU indirect tax directives. He said that discussions are ongoing on how VAT should be applied to particular goods and services, and VAT's interaction with excise duties.

Shirinov noted that VAT on educational services has already been dropped, since the start of 2013, in line with EU norms.

He said that introducing indirect tax policies closer to the EU's will improve exporters' competitiveness and promote Azerbaijan's economic integration with the rest of the world and Europe in particular.

He also disclosed that new rules had been introduced to monitor the performance of the tax service and that new software had been developed to help municipalities to collect taxes. He also explained that it is now possible for taxpayers to make payments online, and that the number of businesses using electronic Point of Sale (POS) terminals had increased. The tax service is now focusing on enhancing tax enforcement in the area of e-commerce.

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