Tax inspectors demand a list from school principals
Many specialists working privately will be forced to pay taxes starting April 1, 2009. The law on "Restricted payments" passed on 2008 April 26 applies to all pedagogues and professors who give language and preparatory courses for admission to universities and other educational institutions, as well as paid courses for other professions.
Head of the taxation inspectorate of Vanadzor Henrik Kochinyan sent a notice on January 21 to all teachers of Vanadzor stating the following:
"I ask you to provide me with information on the students who take part in paid courses. I also ask you to please provide me with the names, last names and addresses of the people organizing those courses." We took a tour around the schools to find out teachers' opinions.
Vice-principal of school Number 1 Zaruhi Tarkhanyan said that a survey was taken from teachers and students on extra paid courses and all teachers said that they don't conduct private lessons, while students said that they don't attend any private lessons. Tarkhanyan said that that is what they will state in the notice to be sent by the tax inspectorate.
The principal of school Number 6 Norekyan said that their school has also taken surveys showing that none of the students takes private lessons. He said that the tax inspectors should be the ones finding out which students take private lessons and not the principals.
Another principal who preferred to stay unanimous said that the tax inspectors must know how much each person earns and not cause a conflict between the principals, teachers and students.
According to the law, specialists whose annual income is not more than 2.5 million drams must pay the additional payment. The annual tax is set at 30,000 drams.
Based on simple calculation, a person has to make a maximum of 200,000 drams a month to receive 2,400,000 drams a year. If we take into account that the teachers give private lessons for 10-15,000 drams a student, this means that they must have 13-20 students. Some teachers say that it is not right to have a person with five students pay the same amount that a person with 15 students pays.
Armenian language teacher Aida Hovhannisyan believes that serious social issues must be solved before taxing teachers. "Teachers must be able to give private lessons after working at the school until 5 p.m."
Fines will be applied in case of revelation of illegal activities starting April 1. With regard to this, Kochinyan said:
"We still don't know the exact cost of the fine, but it will be clear by April 1."
Gayane Sargsyan
Vanadzor
