Some media outlets face difficulties because of law on turnover tax

Some mass media outlets of Armenia now face difficulties because of the Law on Turnover Tax adopted in December 2012, the editor-in-chief of “Hraparak” paper Ms. Armine Ohanian expressed concern at a meeting with reporters today.

“We paid only profit tax previously, whereas now we also have to pay turnover tax that includes 3.5% of the sum received from the sale of newspapers and 5% of the profit from advertisement,” she noted. According to A. Ohanian, recently they paid their taxes and realized that it was quite a large sum – 600-700 thousand AMD.

“It is a blow to all newspapers with a small or medium circulation. The law is not applied to those who pay value-added tax,” Armine Ohanian said, adding that the new law is applied not only to the mass media, but also to small and medium enterprises.
She stressed that the new law has an especially negative effect on newspapers which publish printed material and also have a website where they place advertisements.

“Zhoghovurd” paper also encountered the same problem. The editor-in-chief of “Zhoghovurd” Ms. Taguhi Tovmasian said that previously they paid a maximum of 250 thousand AMD, but this sum has increased to 500 thousand AMD after the law took effect.

“Everyone assured us prior to the law’s adoption that it would relieve the burden and small and medium enterprises, but the opposite happened,” she noted, adding that we will soon witness the closure of a number of shops.