Events

MINSK, 5 July (BelTA) – Plans have been made to prepare the concept for reforming Belarusian taxation laws by 2021. Belarusian Tax and Duties Minister Sergei Nalivaiko made the relevant statement during the online conference hosted by BelTA’s website on 5 July.

The tax and duties minister said: “Indeed, the Tax Code is not supposed to face any reworking for the next three years. Respectively the next stage of amendments and addenda to the Tax Code may happen in 2021. However, it does not mean that all the work on improving the taxation legislation will stop until then. We will need these three years in order to make up our minds on fundamental matters, for which we cannot produce an acceptable solution within a short period of time.”

Sergei Nalivaiko specified that the concept will be built around ways to really reduce the tax burden, reform the property taxes taking into account the future mass revaluation of real estate all over the country, efforts to mutually adjust bookkeeping and accounting practices, optimization of tax preferences, and efforts to improve transfers to the social security fund.

The official also reminded that the Tax Code is now being corrected on a large scale. “The head of state has given instructions to determine goals of this work. We have to make the tax legislation stable. Legal norms need to become simple, understandable, and easy to comprehend. We need to rule out indefiniteness and inconformity in legal regulations. And we have to stimulate economic activities. At the same time the amendments must not reduce revenues of the state budget,” stressed Sergei Nalivaiko.

A special interagency workgroup has been established with these goals in mind. It comprises representatives of government agencies, the largest auditing companies, representatives of the business community and experts of the Business Promotion Council – all in all, about 60 people. “This group includes such a large number of people because we want to hear different opinions. A lot of work has been done already. The general part of the Tax Code and some chapters of the special part have been discussed. Many matters faced vigorous discussions. We often heard contradicting proposals. And it is only naturally because different sides have different goals. And compromises on such issues had to be found,” stated Sergei Nalivaiko.

The tax and duties minister noted that the work is now mainly focused on editing the special part of the Tax Code.