200 Million Dram Recovered by State Budget from Previously Hidden Tax Liabilities During Investigation

Criminal proceedings conducted by the main department for the investigation of economic crimes and smuggling of the Committee on Legal Affairs in Armenia have uncovered cases involving businesses selling products without providing calculated documents, concealing turnover, and failing to pay taxes in significant amounts.

As a result of comprehensive investigative actions during the pre-trial investigation by investigators, operational measures carried out by the investigation and operational intelligence department of the State Revenue Committee, and studies conducted by the tax information and risk assessment department of the same committee, substantial evidence was obtained regarding M.E., who on January 8, 2008, was registered as an individual entrepreneur engaging in the sale of food and non-food products in a shop located in the city of Aparan, Aragatsotn Province. He was found to have factually led the operations of the individual entrepreneurial entity T.H. registered on September 23, 2019, which sold non-food products from the same shop, without paying particularly large taxes.

From October 2019 to October 2022, M.E. had concealed tax objects, violating the provisions of the Armenian Tax Code. Specifically, during sales, he failed to provide receipts from cash registers and submitted distorted data in tax calculations. Moreover, from October 2019 to July 2022, he similarly concealed the tax objects of T.H., resulting in particularly large taxes not being paid to the state budget with a unified intent.

Based on sufficient evidence gathered during the criminal proceedings, public criminal prosecution was initiated against M.E. under Part 3, Point 2 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code of Armenia. During the pre-trial investigation, M.E. submitted corrected tax calculations to the tax authority and paid 200,000,000 AMD to the state budget from previously hidden tax liabilities.

Notice: The accused is considered innocent until proven guilty in accordance with the procedures set forth by the Criminal Procedure Code of Armenia, by a court ruling that has entered into legal force.