YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government approved the government support procedure for commercial organizations and private entrepreneurs in the IT sector.

“With this decision we return 50% of the revenue tax for newly created jobs to improve certain conditions for IT organizations,” the State Revenue Committee Chairman Rustam Badasyan said.

“There are two goals: First of all we have a big group of freelancers who work in the shadow, at home, they work under various contracts for foreign organizations and work in the shadow. We offer the kind of conditions for them to benefit from state social credits upon being registered legally, and that being registered becomes more beneficial than not registered. Secondly, many countries fight to keep highly qualified IT experts and there is big competition in this sector. Particularly, various privileges exist in both European countries and in CIS countries. For example in Uzbekistan, Georgia there are various IT sector privileges,” he said, adding that they want Armenian IT companies to be competitive in this context.

Companies qualifying for the support program must have at least 50 new jobs as of March 1. “I mean not the work contracts but the legal contracts. And for these 50 employees the companies must not have had paid revenue tax for the preceding 6 months before March 1. Meaning, this is about completely newly opened jobs.”