Tax Inspection Does not Allow Entrepreneurs to Work

                                                                     Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi

Entrepreneurs often complain about violation of their rights. Social polls of deferent organizations prove this tendency. In Kutaisi, the Human Rights Centre asked people – In which field are human rights most violated in Georgia? - Respondents answered that human rights are mostly breached in business and penitentiary settings. More precisely, citizens pointed out entrepreneurs are threatened, fined for no reasons and blackmailed in Georgia; there are no mechanisms in the country to protect entrepreneurs and tax-payers.

Short time ago, Tax Inspection sequestered several so called “Gold Exchanges” in Kutaisi. Representatives of human rights organizations say entrepreneurs’ rights were breached and plenty of violations were observed

“Recently, entrepreneurs send more complaints about tax fines to us. They complain about their breached rights and request our legal assistance. After several companies were fined in Kutaisi, the properties of these companies were sequestered. It must be noted that Tax Inspection acts illegally. If an entrepreneur has filled in expenditure bill correctly and there are no hidden expenses, the company shall not be fined which has become very common recently. It is blatant interference in the activities of the enterprise and aims to destroy them. We should remember that future of our country depends on the welfare of entrepreneurs because they are paying taxes to the budget” said Tamar Pachulia, lawyer for Kutaisi office of Georgian Young Lawyers Association.

Entrepreneurs say they need support and promotion instead punishment from the state such as sequestration and fines of 1500 GEL. Besides that, they speak about other violations of Tax inspectors: “it is enough to speak about their coming to our companies when they lock our shops without explanation and impose fines of 1500 GEL on us; nobody cares how we can get such a large some. They are very rude to us and if we complain they blame us in violations. This is a story of a little man who could not fight against big man. It has no sense to appeal to the court…after all this, our governmental officials will state on TV that they support entrepreneurs.”

 Representatives of GYLA also speak about rudeness of Tax inspectors. Lawyer Tamar Pachulia said in one occasion, entrepreneur requested the inspector to produce corresponding documents and he had this right under the law. “There is an instruction approved by the Minister of Finances which directly states that when an inspector visits an entrepreneur to examine the entity, s/he is entitled to produce corresponding resolution and his/her ID as well as instruction of taking stock. In this particular case, none of abovementioned procedures were carried out. Just the opposite, the inspector was very rude and the incident ended with fining the entrepreneur because the latter resisted the tax inspector.”

Kutaisi Office of GYLA said more entrepreneurs appeal to their office for legal aid than in previous years.