You Can't Sell the Gold Gift from the Wedding Godfather: 'Jamanak'

The newspaper 'Jamanak' reports that following the legislative changes to the turnover tax starting January 1, 2025, not only will the commercial activity tax increase from 5% to 10%, but gold sellers will now be required to provide documents proving the source of the product's acquisition.

For instance, henceforth, grandmother's gold jewelry must be inventoried and then bequeathed to the heir. Worse still, the godfather will have to not only dance with the gift gold jewelry but also present the purchase document for the gold.

Recently, jewelers and gold sellers raised their voices in protest in front of the Government, which, however, remained unresponsive and silent. Jewelers face not only the requirement to present invoices but also several other stipulations of which some part of the 'Gold Market' is informed, while others are not.

The information sheet states: 'Notification regarding the legislative changes in turnover tax effective January 1, 2025: The commercial activity tax changes from 5% to 10%. Therefore, until January 1, 2025, only 4% of expenses based on documented purchases will be deducted, while from January 1, 2025, 9.5% of all documented expenses, instead of 1.5% of turnover, will be reduced to 1%.'

With this law change, organizations whose purchases in 2024 amounted to up to 24 million drams will have to inventory the actual presence of goods by February 1, 2025. Furthermore, the tax supervisory body will have the right to visit and check product movement, which it was previously not allowed to do before January 1, 2025.

During inventory checks, if there is a discrepancy in the product inventory, gold sellers will face fines. This means that all types of gold jewelry must be registered and have a purchase document. If they do not possess such documents, a penalty of 20% of the calculated amount will be imposed, while for committing the same act within a year, a fine of 50% will apply.

It should be noted that when checking the inventory, any shortage will be considered concealed sales, and turnover tax or penalties will be calculated. As a result, grandmother's gold and the godfather's gold gift can no longer hold any value in a market where vendors shout 'I buy gold' or 'Are you selling gold?' without proof of purchase documentation.

This way, the Government seems to be trying to, as entrepreneurs say, put an end to small and medium businesses, effectively turning the sector into a domain for oligarchic monopolists and large enterprises.'