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Belarusian Tax and Duties Ministry’s tasks for 2023 outlined
MINSK, 27 January (BelTA) – Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko spoke at a session of the Tax and Duties Ministry board on 27 January to identify the main tasks the ministry will have to accomplish in 2023, BelTA has learned.
Roman Golovchenko said: “The head of state has given instructions to ensure full digitization of accounting, control and payment of taxes. This task has to be fulfilled. At present automated interaction with tax payers relies on six information systems. In addition to keeping records of tax payers they allow receiving declarations and calculating tax sums in addition to analyzing the operation of the tax payers and providing contactless services.”
In his words, the Tax and Duties Ministry did a lot of effective work last year to automate the taxation of small businesses. In particular, a special mobile app was developed to administrate the tax on professional revenues of self-employed individuals. “Judging from the response we are getting from the general public it is one of the most positively accepted decisions, which were made last year. It is now necessary to make sure the app works right. You will have to polish the practice this year. We will sum up results at the end of the year. We may submit proposals on expanding the types of activities that are subject to this matter or we will revise some things. On the whole, a lot of work was done and it was done effectively,” the Belarusian head of government stressed. Roman Golovchenko remarked that the Tax and Duties Ministry has a strategy for developing taxation bodies. The strategy provides for persistent and smooth introduction of the relevant digital services.
“The administration of indirect taxes is one of the most complicated business processes in any country. Within the framework of realization of the Belarusian-Russian agreement on common principles of taxation with regard to indirect taxes the rates of excise duties on alcohol products and tobacco goods were raised on 1 January 2023. The list of excisable goods was expanded. In addition to positive effects this novelty entails risks relating to the smuggling of tobacco goods and nicotine-containing analog products into the country due to rising local prices. Tax bodies have to take additional measures to prevent smuggling and sales of alcohol-containing products, electronic smoking systems, trade in tobacco goods without Belarusian excise stamps,” the prime minister stated. “Effective interaction of national systems for administrating indirect taxes of Belarus and Russia has to be organized in order to enable oversight over the payment of VAT and determine the riskiest links in product sale chains in Belarus and Russia.”
As far as Union State programs on integrating information systems for goods marking are concerned, instructions have been given to switch to cash registers, which can read information about a marked product and transmit it to the cash register and goods marking control system, by late 2025. Such cash registers need to be created by the time the goods marking systems are supposed to be integrated. All the laws and regulations for it are in place. There is not so much time left considering the scale of the work that all participants of the process have to do, Roman Golovchenko said. “I want the Tax and Duties Ministry and the State Standardization Committee to work out a clear-cut action plan in this area and report its fulfillment to the government every six months,” he said.
“Restrictions being introduced, sanctions, and processes going on in the world economy as a whole are radically changing the economic environment and economic relations. This is why it is necessary to create and keep in working order a simple and easy-to-understand system of tax liabilities, which meets principles of social justice as much as possible and ensures the competitive ability of the national economy. The ministry shows understanding about how work in this area is supposed to proceed. Concrete results are also necessary. I expect enterprising and responsible work,” he concluded.
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