State Revenue Committee: Religious aspect should not be subject to tax

YEREVAN, 31 May. /ARKA/. Transactions that are supposed to be of religious purpose should not be subject to tax, Chairman of Armenia’s State Revenue Committee Rustam Badasyan stated on Friday.

“However, if any item is being sold for profit-making, such a transaction has to be taxed,” Badasyan told journalists in the parliament, commenting on the potential introduction of taxation for the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Badasyan clarified that anonymous donations to the church are not a problem.

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on 22 May that the government is going to introduce transparent taxation for the Apostolic Church. The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin claimed that it had abided by all taxpaying obligations.

Artur Hovhanissyan, Secretary of the ruling Civil Contract party, later mentioned that although the Apostolic Church has a special status in the country, it has to “come out of the shadow” and reveal its financial affairs as Armenia goes through major “democrating and taxpaying” changes.