Iran's Tax Administration Brings Big-Timers Under Scrutiny

EghtesadOnline: The government wants to bring under closer scrutiny transactions above 50 billion rials ($375,000) conducted inside the country, head of Iranian National Tax Administration said.

News ID: ۷۴۹۵۸۶

02 February 2020

Omid Ali Parsa said INTA will issue an executive bylaw in the coming week guiding tax offices and banks on how to handle the big deals, according to Financial Tribune.

Referring to existing rules on curbing tax fraud and tax evasion, Parsa said the new regulations allow the taxman to dig into transactions conducted over the past five years.

“As such, INTA can go back five years to look into transactions of those who concealed their income,” IBENA quoted him saying.

Based on the new rules, the tax authority is authorized to inspect transactions worth five billion rials and above, Parsa said. This, however, does not mean INTA will overlook lesser transactions.

“In cases of those trying to evade taxes, INTA may also examine transactions below five billion rials,” the senior official said.

Looking into big transactions does not necessarily mean all will be taxable, Parsa reiterated, stressing that the taxman will disregard transactions that have nothing to do with tax liability. This may account for half of the transactions.

Focus on 3 Groups

Hadi Khani, an official with INTA, said earlier that tax collectors focus on three categories of bank transactions.

First are those who do not cooperate with the tax authority and refuse to play by the rules.

The second group includes those whose misdeeds and violation of rules are verifiable in commercial records, such as bank accounts, commercial cards and fake and forged invoices.

Finally, INTA is keen on digging deeper into bank transactions of those who are known to be involved in or under suspicion of corruption.

According to Parsa, the annual value of unpaid tax is estimated to hover around 400-450 trillion rials ($3-$3.5 billion rials).

INTA announced earlier that its officers had identified and collected unpaid taxes to the tune of 184 trillion rials ($1.4 billion) in the last fiscal year the ends in March. Of this amount, 147 trillion rials ($1.2 billion) was discovered by monitoring suspicious transactions.

Last May, the Central Bank of Iran sent a directive to banks and credit institutions obliging them to report transactions of taxpayers to INTA on a monthly basis.

The rule, enshrined in the current budget (March 2019-20), seeks to promote transparency in the lethargic banking industry, control money laundering and curb tax evasion.

As per law, on INTA’s request banks and credit institutions are obliged to provide data about bank accounts and transactions (both interbank and intra-bank) of taxpayers.