International Monetary Fund Welcomes Iranian Tax Reforms
Type
E-journal
Date
3 Mar 2014
Jurisdiction
Iran
Taxonomy
General Tax Law, VAT, Taxes Management
Copyright
LexisNexis
Analysis
In late January 2014, an International Monetary Fund team, led by the Assistant Director for the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department, Martin Cerisola, visited Tehran for a couple of weeks and held meetings with senior officials at Iran's Central Bank and the county's Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The visit followed an announcement by Iran that it had embarked on a tax reform programme in the wake of low growth and high-inflation.
The team led by Cerisola particularly welcomed the 2% increase in the scheduled value added tax rate as well as the draft measures to begin reducing the country's reliance on oil revenues.
Under the country's VAT provisions, the rate must be raised by 1% annually.
Other reforms launched by the country are aimed at strengthening tax administration and reforming the tax exemptions for companies.