Iran Tax Administration Gets New Chief

EghtesadOnline: Omid Ali Parsa, the former head of the Statistical Center of Iran, has been appointed the director of Iranian National Tax Administration after the Cabinet's vote of confidence on Sunday.

News ID: ۷۸۴۷۱۱

08 June 2019

Expanding the tax base, fighting tax evasion and improving taxation transparency were missions set for the new INTA chief by President Hassan Rouhani.

Kamel Taqavinejad, the former head of INTA, is now serving as deputy health minister. It was not immediately known who will replace Parsa to lead the Statistical Center of Iran.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance estimates that tax evasion and avoidance in Iran stands at 35% of total tax revenues, according to Financial Tribune.

INTA is setting up a specialized court to only hear tax cases in Tehran.

The government earned 1,090 trillion rials ($8.13 billion) in tax revenues in the last fiscal year that ended on March 20, 2019.

The earnings had been estimated to reach 1,130 trillion rials ($8.43 billion) as per the fiscal 2018-19 budget law, suggesting that 97% of the target were met.

Direct tax revenues, including tax on legal entities, income tax and wealth tax, stood at 640 trillion rials ($4.77 billion), registering an increase of 15% compared with the year before.

Earnings from tax on goods and services hit 450 trillion rials ($3.35 billion), indicating an 11% year-on-year growth.

Value added tax accounts for the lion’s share of total tax revenues in Iran with 23.5%, as per INTA figures, followed by corporate tax and import tax. This is while income tax comprises the biggest share of tax revenues in high-income countries. Corporate (company) tax is the second top earner of such revenues in Iran.

According to the World Bank's latest Ease of Doing Business Report 2019, Iran's score in "paying taxes" was 56.78, registering an improvement of 4.17 percentage point compared to 2018.

The Doing Business report measures the taxes and mandatory contributions that a medium-sized company must pay in a given year, as well as the administrative burden of taxes and contributions.

According to the World Bank, on average, firms in Iran make 20 tax payments a year, spend 216 hours a year filing, preparing and paying taxes and pay total taxes amounting to 44.7% of their profit, placing the country at the 149th global ranking among 190 nations.

The World Bank says Iran made paying taxes easier by introducing an online system for filing social security contributions, making it possible to file value added tax refund claims, amend corporate income tax returns and pay additional tax liabilities online.