Azernews.Az

By Ayya Lmahamad

President Ilham Aliyev has approved the amendments to the Tax Code, providing for tax benefits for businesses amid coronavirus pandemic, the president’s press service reported on June 2.

According to the amendments to the Tax Code, starting from January 1, 2020, property and land taxes for hotels and other tourism facilities, activities of tour operators and travel agencies, catering, road passenger transportation within the country, including taxi activities, are fully exempt from payment for a year.

Also exempt from property and land taxes are the activities of delivery services, the organization of exhibitions and stage activities, cinemas, museums, theaters and concert halls, sports and recreation facilities, educational courses, out-of-school educational institutions and psychological centers. The exemption will also apply to other areas whose activities were partially or completely suspended due to the quarantine regime introduced by the Cabinet of Ministers on March 24.

Furthermore, a number of additional benefits for the abovementioned areas will be introduced for one year, depending on the taxation regime. Income tax payers will receive 75% exemption and simplified tax payers - 50% exemption.

Moreover, the coronavirus-affected areas will receive other reliefs. The source tax rate for renting property is reduced from 14% to 7%.

For taxpayers who are not subjects of micro-entrepreneurship, the terms of payment of income and property taxes accrued for 2019 have been extended until September 1, 2020. Also, the accrual of interest on unpaid taxes, contributions to compulsory social insurance and unemployment insurance has been postponed from 1 April 2020 to 1 January 2021, and the terms for choosing the method of payment of simplified tax for 2020 have been extended to persons engaged in catering activities and registered as VAT payers until 1 September 2020.

As of June 3, Azerbaijan has registered 5.935 COVID-19 cases and 71 coronavirus- related deaths so far. The total number of recovered patients is 3.564.

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