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Supporting Tax Reform in Armenia

Decoding

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visuel-erevan
© Taema (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Armenia’s major tax reform initiative, financed by AFD and implemented by Expertise France is coming to an end. It’s a fine example of cooperation between France and Armenia, particularly in terms of tax equity, which is already producing results.

As part of its 2020-2024 Strategy, Armenia’s State Revenue Committee (SRC) is reducing the role of the informal economy in an effort to make the country’s overall economy more efficient. 

Financed in the amount of €450,000, it ran from July 2019 to May 2022 and was the result of a collaboration involving several actors, from Armenia’s SRC and Statistics Committee to Expertise France, AFD and France’s Directorate General of Public Finances (DGFiP). 



The project was based on four components:

  • Supporting the tax administration to ensure a better understanding of the informal sector in Armenia 
  • Developing the SRC’s capacity to mobilize and analyze internal and external information
  • Strengthen the legislation and capacity of the SRC to regulate and tax the gaming sector
  • Delivering a roadmap for the certification of information systems for security and management

To this end, the SRC was supported with the preparation of reports, diagnostics, roadmaps, risk maps, training, workshops and seminars. France’s DGFiP conducted two working groups in partnership with the SRC, on risk and data analysis and on international tax fraud.

Five missions were organized in Yerevan in the framework of this technical assistance program. Several members of the SRC participated in a study visit to Nice and London. 

Strengthened Franco-Armenian cooperation

Now in its closing phase, the project can show many achievements. Under component 1, a report on the informal economy has been produced. On 6 April 2022, a seminar was held to present the work carried out on this theme. Ten officers from the SRC's IT department were also trained in the use of Microsoft BI software to develop standard taxpayer profiles.

Component 2 provided a series of reports to improve the use of internally and/or externally sourced information by the SRC. In addition, several workshops were held in the framework of the two working groups led by the DGFiP. 

The work carried out in Component 3 provided an overview of the gambling sector in Armenia and its taxation system. The recommendations made allowed the drafting of several proposals for legislation aimed at better regulation of this sector in the country.

Component 4 produced a roadmap to support the SRC in its preparation for ISO 27001/2013 certification relating to the security and management of information systems.

In the light of this productive Franco-Armenian collaboration,  AFD wishes to continue supporting the Armenian Ministry of Finance. This technical assistance project thus marks the beginning of a promising relationship.