NEWS .

WHAT SURPRISES WILL BE IN STORE FOR BELARUSIAN TAXPAYERS IN 2009?

One of the top news is the decision by the government to enable natural persons, including non-residents, to make deposits in the Belarusian banks not only in unlimited amounts, but also without making income declaration, with the privacy of deposits being observed in full. At present, the depositor must declare his/hers sources of income when depositing the amounts in excess of 2,000 base units (1 base unit is equal to Br 35,000; hence, 2,000 base units are slightly over USD 33,000 - IF). It should be noted that this government decision also envisages introduction of the government guarantees for all bank deposits of natural persons irrespective of their amounts.

This initiative of the National Bank of Belarus is aimed, first of all, at raising the investment attractiveness of Belarus and has been launched in the framework of the pre-approved plans for the country to join 30 most attractive countries for doing business in.
In the framework of simplifying the tax system, the monthly checks of validity of the VAT offsets and refunds in carrying out foreign trade activity will be canceled in Belarus starting from 2009.

The Minister of Finance of Belarus has also stated that starting from the next year the special tax on transactions with securities will be cancelled, as it is to be included in the general system of the income tax calculation. In this connection they are going to determine the specifics of the tax base computation, the benefits for certain types of securities and the mix of expenses to be considered in taxation.

To simplify the tax system, from 2009 the filing of the "blank" tax returns will be canceled, the issuance of the duplicate of notification of assigning the tax payer number when opening a bank account will be abolished, and the possibility to declare taxes electronically will be introduced.

From 2009, businesses in Belarus will be able to file their tax returns electronically. Based on electronic filing, a firmware to automate calculation of the tax amounts will be developed and implemented into the taxpayers' work from 2011. This is stipulated in the bill for an act relating to the changes and amendments to be introduced into the taxation laws, which has already been adopted by the Parliament at the first reading.