The conference held on "Tax Reforms: Together from Shadow to Light"

A conference on the occasion of the professional holiday of tax officers was held on February 11. The event was attended by tax authorities’ officers, representatives of government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and public associations of entrepreneurs, economic experts and businessmen.

Speaking at the conference, Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov talked about economic development of our country in 2019, main directions of tax policy and ongoing reforms, changes in tax legislation and administration, and their impact on the national economy, new challenges for transparency, and new work principles of tax authorities with entrepreneurs. The Minister underlined that, in 2019, the processes of transparency in the economy were expanded and serious steps were taken to reduce the "shadow economy". Recent steps in the context of establishing transparent relationships have laid the foundation for a new transformation in public-business relations. Soft tax control and the introduction of new tax relief mechanisms have allowed businesses to come out of the shadow. In general, the positive attitude of the business community to the context of the new relationship once again proves the correctness of the policy pursued and lack of alternatives for transparency.

The Minister of Economy noted that tax system has an important role to play in economic regulation and development of entrepreneurship, that economic development is related to business activity and business agility, mentioning the importance of increasing the role of small and medium-sized businesses in employment, stable and sustainable economy, and thanking entrepreneurs for providing transparency in their activities.

M. Jabbarov noted that a group of tax officers were awarded by a decree signed today by Mr. Ilham Aliyev, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and thanked the President on behalf of the staff for the high appreciation of the work of tax authorities.

At the conference, Deputy Minister of Taxes Ilkin Veliyev made a presentation on "The Road to Transparency in Tax Administration" and talked about reforms in the tax system, changes in tax legislation, ongoing and planned activities.

At the event, the head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan (AmCham) Nuran Karimov made a speech on “Fighting against the Shadow Economy and Transparency”, Director of Millennium Tourism Ruslan Guliyev on “Favorable Environment for Businesses in Tax”, Director of Baku Report Center Mehdi Babayev on “Transparent accounting, easy calculation, fair reporting as a key area of tax administration”, Director of Unimetal LLC Rufat Azizov on “Impact of tax policy on investment climate”, Corresponding member of ANAS, Professor Akif Musayev on “Tax authority: yesterday, today”.

The speakers highly appreciated the measures taken to improve the business environment and tax administration in the new economic environment in the country, and made recommendations on reforms aimed at economic transparency.

The conference continued its work at the panel session. At the meeting, participants' questions were responded, and topical issues were discussed.