How to open an IE or LLC in Armenia

1. Open the IE registration on e-register.moj.am and sign in with ԵսԵմ.
2. Your passport details and address are filled in from the population register. Check them.
3. Choose your activity from the classifier: one code.
4. Sign the application.

The register extract, which is your IE certificate, appears under “My applications” and arrives by email. The ՀՎՀՀ field holds your tax number (TIN).

You already sign in to ԵսԵմ with Mobile ID, but document signing is turned on separately: ask your mobile operator (Team, Ucom or Viva). Each signature is confirmed with a six-digit PIN set up at the operator. Foreigners pay EKENG 3,000 AMD a year for the signature; Armenian citizens do not pay.

A CoSign signature from EKENG also works with a residence permit: 10,000 drams a year, ordered on ekeng.am. With Mobile ID, returns in the tax cabinet are signed as you send them, with no file to download.

Returns and statements are filed in the cabinet at file-online.taxservice.am. The reliable way is to visit any tax office, no appointment needed. Bring the sheet with your public services number, the registration certificate and your passport or residence card. The application in Armenian is filled in together with the officer, and the administrator login and password arrive by email. Bring a translation of your passport too. Do not go to Khorenatsi 5: it is the head office, not a service office.

• The login is often your TIN, but if the business had administrators before (accountants, for example), it may be the TIN with its last digit one higher.
• After the first login the cabinet may ask you to confirm your email through a link in a letter. Do it within 10 days, or the account is locked and you have to visit the tax office again.

There is also an online application on file-online: confirm your email, fill in the form, sign the contract with your electronic signature. With a foreign passport, the community reports, it does not go through.

A new IE or LLC starts on the general regime: 20% VAT and profit tax. To pay turnover tax instead (the rate depends on the activity; for most services it is 10% of turnover), file a statement (form 201) within 20 days of registration. Miss it, and the general regime stays until the end of the year.

The statement has to be filed again every year, by February 20. Otherwise the general regime applies from January 1. If the cabinet is not ready in time, ask at a tax office how to file the statement another way.