YEREVAN. - Very soon the IT start-ups in Armenia will for the first time be exempted from taxes, Arkadi Sahakyan, lawyer of the Union of information technology enterprises (UITE), told Armenian News –NEWS.am at the conference of Small and Medium Enterprise Cooperation Association.

He reminded that the Law on state support to the IT sphere entered into force on January 1, 2015, but it actually began to be applied in April: it took several months for the interagency Committee on consideration of tax exemption applications from start-ups to draft the regulation. The Committee is made up of 7 members who represent Armenia’s Economy and Finance Ministry and the Armenian Government. It also includes IT organizations such as the UITE and Enterprise Incubator Foundation (EIF).

“We have put a simple guideline on the UITE website, which contains information on how to file an application, as well as when and what documents to fill out,” Sahakyan said.

6-7 documents must be attached to the application. The samples of those documents are available in Armenia’s Ministry of Economy.

These documents are filed with the Ministry of Economy, which further transfers them to the committee for consideration. During its first session in April, the committee considered the first five applications from the IT companies. 

Sahakyan said that start-ups can request tax exemption within 3 months after their registration.

“Results of the consideration of applications must have been published today. This means that the first users of the exemptions will appear very soon,” Sahakyan said.

The Law on state support to the IT sphere stipulates 0 per cent profit tax and 10 per cent income tax. The exemptions are applicable for start-ups with a staff not exceeding 15 employees. The exemptions will last for 3 years. The aforementioned law will be effective till 2020. According to the Ministry of Economy, the law will help create 400 new jobs.