BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 22. Azerbaijan plans to introduce a mechanism for pre-filling tax returns for micro-entrepreneurs to reduce their administrative burden and simplify compliance with tax obligations, Samir Khaligov, Head of the Main Department for Tax Risk Management at the State Tax Service under the Ministry of Economy, said, Trend's correspondent reports from the event.
He made the remarks on Thursday at a conference in Baku dedicated to the digital transformation of public finance.
He said the State Tax Service viewed digitalization not only as a tool for tax control, but also as a way to improve the quality of services provided to taxpayers and increase their satisfaction.
“Our main principle is not to ask businesses to provide information that the state already has, and to make it as easy as possible for taxpayers to fulfil their obligations,” Khaligov noted.
According to him, one of the key innovations in this area is the pre-filling of tax returns, known as pre-filling. This approach, already used for simplified tax returns, is expected to be extended to micro-entrepreneurs in the coming days.
“The system pre-fills the relevant fields of a tax return using available data, while taxpayers check and confirm the information,” he said.
Khaligov added that work was also underway to enable tax returns to be submitted through a mobile application. This option is particularly important for micro-entrepreneurs with limited access to desktop computers. Expanding the pre-filling mechanism to value-added tax (VAT) returns is another priority, he said.
The State Tax Service official stressed the importance of expanding data exchange and integrating information systems across government agencies as part of digital tax administration.
“Currently, the State Tax Service receives data from 35 government agencies and provides data to 42,” he said.
According to Khaligov, the main purpose of these integrations is to improve the speed and quality of services and strengthen coordination between agencies by enabling them to use each other's data. Digital data exchange not only expands oversight capabilities but also improves the efficiency of government operations and reduces the administrative burden on businesses.
He also highlighted the importance of cooperation with the Finance Ministry. As part of efforts to digitize handover and acceptance documents for infrastructure construction, commonly known as “Form 2,” the possibility of integrating the relevant data into the tax system is also under discussion.
“I hope this integration will help reduce the additional paperwork required from businesses,” he stressed.
Khaligov identified improving the aggregation of banking data as another important area. Receiving structured information in a timely manner would help increase the accuracy of pre-filled tax returns, he said.
“Digitalization not only makes life easier for taxpayers but also encourages voluntary tax compliance and helps improve the transparency of budget revenues,” Khaligov noted.