Some 90 percent of foreign investors and experts have closed their representative offices in Iran and left the country in the past three years due to taxation problems, a government official told the official Iranian news agency, IRNA, on Monday.
Mohammad Reza Sabzalipour, the official in charge of World Trade Organization (WTO) affairs in Iran, lauded the “explicit tax directive issued by Minister of Economy and Finance Hossein Namazi on ways of determining taxes levied on branches and representatives of foreign companies and organization operating in Iran,” saying the measure indicated that the officials did not have bad intentions, but "sometimes received incorrect information.”
“The recent directive refers to misunderstanding on the part of some taxation office personnel regarding written and oral directives and cautions them against making subjective judgments on tax matters,” he said.
Namazi also stressed that any verbal directives by tax officials were invalid and encouraged tax office personnel to be vigilant in carrying out the written orders issued by the ministry.
He urged taxation officials to “forward those cases needing reviews to legal tax bodies without any delay.”
The minister of economy and finance issued a circular in 1999 to determine the monthly salaries of foreign residents of Iran.
Expatriates complained about the salary table, which had been drawn up without regard for the salaries which foreign experts receive in Iran, said the agency.
"Some executive officials in Iran try to politicize their projects, which increases such problems," he said.
If the executive managers consider national interests, the economy will become stable and thrive, he said.
A French bank which had lent some $1 million to Iran was forced to recall all its representative offices in Iran due to tax regulations, he said.
Calling the current tax regulations “anti-investment and production,” he said it seemed that some people were preventing the country's problems from being solved.
The current tax law has prompted most domestic and foreign companies transfer their offices to the United Arab Emirates, turning the UAE into a business center to deal with Iran's economy, he said.
"If the current tax law is amended, we will witness very rapid economic growth in the country with the direct involvment of foreign companies," added the official – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
