How to open an IE or LLC in Armenia

File at the same places as an IE: the State Register Agency (49/3 Komitas Ave.), the public services centre (3 Vazgen Sargsyan St.), some banks and HayPost branches. Templates of the founder's decision and the standard charter are on the service page. Bring:

• a copy of each founder's identity document with a notarized Armenian translation, and their public services number;
• the founder's decision: name, charter capital and its shares, director;
• the charter, with the legal address in Armenia.

A name containing “Hay”, “Armenia” or “Armenian” (in any language) costs a state fee of 600,000 drams a year. The Agency's site does not say what accepting paper documents costs: ask on the spot.

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.