IRNA - Chairman of Iran's National Tax Administration (INTA) Seyyed Kamel Taqavinejad said on Friday that the international community favors fair taxation and more tax payments by the rich.


Taqavinejad who is in New York to attend the 1st International Conference on Tax Cooperation told Islamic Republic News Agency that following Addis Ababa Summit in 2015 and setting 17 goals for sustainable development, the 1st International Summit on Tax and Sustainable Development was being held for three days as of Wednesday.

The three-day event underway in the UN headquarters discussed findings of international organizations in line with taxation reform schemes in countries, he said.

He further noted that the global community also stresses the need for raising share of taxes in Gross Domestic Product to 15 percent. This is while the ratio of tax to GDP stands at eight and it is expected to reach 11 by the end of the Sixth Vision Plan.

Another issue dealt with during the event was the need for people to declare their real incomes, he said.

As to Iran’s taxation system, Taqavinejad said that INTA has adopted suitable strategies including transparency, justice, reaching out the less advantaged areas, implementing health reform scheme and promoting rural and urban infrastructures in line with administering fair taxation.

In response to a question on whether cutting down taxes will increase investment, he said that the countries participating in the UN meeting underlined fair taxation, as the poor should pay less tax and the rich should pay more.

Noting that tax revenues exceeded oil revenues for the first time in Iran in 2016, as the ratio of tax incomes to oil revenues stood at 15 percent, he said that efforts are underway to rid the economy of oil revenues.

The chief tax collector further stated that his organization is seeking to promote public confidence and increase incentives and allowances for production, exports and employment sectors.

For the same reason agriculture is exempted from taxation and less advantaged areas enjoy higher tax allowances, he said.

Taqavinejad underlined that INTA is determined to prevent tax evasion, saying that it has identified 300,000 new taxpayers in a bid to expand ‘net of taxation’, which will help reduce pressure on current taxpayers.