The Tax Authority Demands Businesses to Eliminate Programmatic Interventions; Legal Assessments to Be Given to Such Phenomena

The State Revenue Committee has recently uncovered risky phenomena where business entities provide consumers with a cash register receipt that corresponds to the price, quantity, and name of the sold product. However, by making programmatic interventions, they send information to the tax authority's database regarding a lower value or completely different products.

For example, a consumer purchases napkins for 300 Armenian drams and meat for 4,000 drams, for which they receive a cash register receipt corresponding to a total of 4,300 drams. However, due to programmatic intervention, the selling entity only sends the value of the napkins, 300 drams, to the tax authority’s database. In another case, a consumer buys lavash for 500 drams and potatoes for 800 drams, receiving a receipt for a total of 1,300 drams, but again due to programmatic intervention, the tax authority is provided with information about a different product— a lighter worth 200 drams.

Businesses that engage in programmatic interventions mislead consumers and the state, hiding their actual turnover under the guise of a law-abiding taxpayer. This primarily occurs among business entities that conduct their sales through external software and reflect the necessary data on the cash register receipts.

Considering such phenomena, the committee demands that businesses eliminate such behavior. At the same time, consumers are urged, if they wish, to send photocopies of receipts obtained from grocery stores or other retail sales outlets to the email address [email protected] to establish control over their legality.

Moreover, the State Revenue Committee informs that despite the fact that there is a fine of up to 5 million drams stipulated by Armenian legislation for these cases, the actions of the tax authority will not be limited solely to imposing fines; legal assessments will also be given to similar phenomena.