Tax system is a key tool and a factor of government policy influencing country’s development in general, and private sector in particular. Tax Code serves as the key regulatory act of the taxation system. The Tax Code of Uzbekistan adopted in 1997 did not fully meet the new objectives and priorities of economic reforms in the country. Since then many changes and amendments were introduced to the Tax Code and a number of taxation-related regulatory acts were adopted. As a result, tax legislation lost its systemic nature, became non-transparent, and the Tax Code could no longer answer many tax-related questions, and many of its provisions became to some extent ambiguous.

To this end, in line with Government’s decision, a new revision of Tax Code of Uzbekistan was developed, which came into effect beginning January 1, 2008. The New Revision of Tax Code has become the law of direct action incorporating all taxes and contributions to the government, i.e. it encompasses entire "tax field" of the country, and reflects special features of taxation in various sectors of the economy.

At the same time, according to the Law on adoption of Tax Code, the Government has launched the conduction of comprehensive monitoring and analysis of the effectiveness of the norms and provisions of the New revision of Tax Code in practice, which is intended to be carried out during 2008-2009. The Business Forum was arranged for the purpose of assisting the Government in implementation of this monitoring, facilitating the discussion among all stakeholders of the norms and provisions of the Tax Code, which require further improvement and adjustment in order to exclude existing ambiguities and contradictions, and developing joint proposals on their improvement.

Apart from that, the complementary objective of the roundtable was to facilitate regular exchange of opinions among stakeholders for long-term cooperation on improvement of the norms of tax legislation and its practical implementation.

Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan, UNDP’s projects "Business Forum of Uzbekistan" and "Public Finance Reform in Uzbekistan" co-hosted this event.

The officials from Oliy Majlis, Cabinet of Ministers, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy, State Tax Committee, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, representatives of private sector and international organizations as well as the experts involved in taxation and tax administration attended the Business Forum.
Issues of practical implementation of the norms and provisions of New Tax Code as well as specific issues of corporate taxation, deadlines and procedures for payment of taxes were discussed during the event. Such issues as labor and payroll taxation including the procedures of calculation and payment of personal income tax, unified payroll tax, insurance premiums, and grounds for and targeted nature of tax privileges were subject to intense discussions. Debates were heated in the course of discussion of tax audits, streamlining personal income taxation scale, rates and procedures for payment of payroll tax and indirect taxes including value-added tax.

Exchange of opinions enabled developing specific recommendations and practical proposals on improvement of the norms and provisions of the Tax Code, which will be submitted for reviewing to the special interagency group for comprehensive monitoring and analysis of practical implementation of Tax Code of Uzbekistan.