The Problems of Implementing the Sales Tax in the Kurdistan Region - IraqA legal analytical study Research

Abstract

   The sales tax is a general tax imposed on most of the individuals and classes of the society. The tax is transferred from the person selling to the end consumer when he/she buys or uses. This tax is different from value added tax (VAT) because VAT is levied on all stages of production until it reaches the end user. Due to the lack of specific and unified laws governing the sales tax in Kurdistan Region and Iraq except the existing laws and regulations in 1997 in Iraq which imposed the sales tax on only highly rated hotels and restaurants, and the consecutive budgets of the State of Iraq from 2015 until 2021, and in Kurdistan Region in accordance with decree no.96 of Ministers Council in 2021, and financial regulation no.9 of Ministry of Finance and Economy in 2021 which only covers the obligation of the sales tax and the rate, albeit not in a specified manner. Other aspects such as rights and duties of the taxpayer, the organization, appeal procedures, the process of penalizing a violating taxpayer and the other matters will be transferred to Income Tax Laws which is has a big difference with sales tax in terms of imposition and this leads to legal and technical issues. It is, therefore, critical to have enacted a particular law pertaining the sales tax to include all the rules and regulations and has been drafted by experts and prominent people in the field of taxation. For this purpose, this research will shed light on two key aspects. This first one will be devoted to introduce the sales tax and the second one will present the legal and technical issues of the sales tax in Kurdistan Region of Iraq.