TEHRAN- The head of Iran’s National Tax Administration (INTA) said since the outbreak of the coronavirus in Iran, INTA has been supporting the country’s businesses by easing or extending their tax dues.

“From the very beginning of the outbreak of the coronavirus in Iran, ITNA considered new tax deferral for the affected businesses, in coordination with the Coronavirus Combat and Prevention Headquarters,” Omid-Ali Parsa told IRNA on Tuesday.

According to Parsa, the mentioned supports were offered to all the businesses since it was difficult for the administration to differentiate between the ones that were affected by the outbreak and the ones that weren’t.

Back in May, the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) had called on the government for further easing of the tax rules on the private sector businesses affected by the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Extension of the tax deferrals offered by the government, returning of at least 50 percent of the value-added tax that exporters paid in the previous year, granting tax exemption or tax reduction of at least 5 percent for the previous year, and extension or renewal of all business licenses without the need to obtain a tax certificate subject to Article 186 of the Law on direct taxes, were some of the supportive measures suggested by the ICCIMA Head Gholam-Hossein Shafeie.

In late July, Parsa had announced the average tax rate in the country to be 28 percent in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021).

According to the official, the figure will be less in the deprived provinces such as Lorestan and Ilam which will have an average tax rate of 15 percent.

Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Farhad Dejpasand said in early June that the government considers tax as the main source of income for managing the country’s economy in the absence of oil revenues.

EF/MA