Tag Archives: Tax

Changes to Customs Tax and VAT Exemptions

During Parliament’s regular session on May 10, a final review of amendments to the Value-Added Tax Law and Customs Tax Exemptions Law were conducted and approved with a majority vote from Parliament members in attendance.

According to the amendments, all imported wood construction materials except oriented strand board (OSB), standardized pre-fabricated wood building structures, and logs will be exempt from customs duty. Other imported wood products, except those related to forestry and horticulture, will be exempt from value-added tax until 2022.

The Amendments to Value-Added Tax Law and Customs Tax Exemptions Law will be effective from January 1, 2018.

Mongolia’s Double Taxation Treaties

Many countries have entered into tax treaties (also called double tax agreements, or DTAs) with other countries to avoid or mitigate double taxationDouble taxation is the levying of tax by two or more jurisdictions on the same declared income, asset or financial transaction. Double liability is mitigated in a number of ways, for example:

  • the main taxing jurisdiction may exempt foreign-source income from tax,
  • the main taxing jurisdiction may exempt foreign-source income from tax if tax had been paid on it in another jurisdiction, or above some benchmark to not include tax haven jurisdictions,
  • the main taxing jurisdiction may tax the foreign-source income but give a credit for foreign jurisdiction taxes paid.

Another approach is for the jurisdictions affected to enter into a tax treaty which sets out rules to avoid double taxation. In the all over the world, over 3000 double taxation agreement (DTAs) are in effect.

Mongolia has entered into “The Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital” with other 25 jurisdictions as of 2017. Namely,

Country In force since
1 The People’s Republic of China Jan 01, 1993
2 The Republic of Korea Jan 01, 1993
3 The Federal Republic of Germany Jan 01, 1997
4 The Republic of India Jan 01, 1997
5 The Socialist Republic of Vietnam Jan 01, 1997
6 The Republic of Turkey Jan 01, 1997
7 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Jan 01, 1997
8 The Republic of Hungary Jan 01, 1997
9 Malaysia Jan 01, 1997
10 The Russian Federation Jan 01, 1998
11 The Republic of Indonesia Jan 01, 1998
12 The Republic of France Jan 01, 1999
13 Czech Republic Jan 01, 1999
14 The Kingdom of Belgium Jan 01, 1999
15 The Republic of Kazakhstan Jan 01, 2000
16 The Republic of Kyrgyz Jan 01, 2000
17 The Republic of Poland Jan 01, 2002
18 The Republic of Bulgaria Jan 01, 2002
19 The Swiss Confederation Jan 01, 2002
20 Ukraine Jan 01, 2003
21 Canada Jan 01, 2003
22 The Republic of Singapore Jan 01, 2005
23 The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Jan 01, 2005
24 The Republic of Austria Jan 01, 2005
25 The Republic of Belarus May 28, 2001

Mongolia’s double tax treaties with United Arab Emirates and Kuwait were terminated from 1 January 2015 and 1 April 2015 respectively. Mongolia’s double tax treaties with Luxembourg and The Netherlands were terminated from 1 January 2014 due to failure to provide for the balance and equity rights of parties.

The Mongolian Government Going Online

Mongolia may have a reputation of a sparsely populated nomadic country, but the Mongolian government in increasingly adopting the technologies of the 21st century to reach and serve the people even in the furthest reaches of the steppe. Several major government agencies have implemented systems to provide services online with great success. Foreign investors are able to take advantage of these systems to make doing business in Mongolia more effective and efficient.

The tax authority is one example. In 2014 the tax authority implemented a new online tax filing and tax payment system. A digital signature issued by the tax office is required to access the online tax portal. An individual authorized by a company to sign financial statements and tax returns must apply for a digital signature in order to be able to access the online tax portal system. The online tax filing and tax payments have proven to be more cost and time saving. The social insurance office has taken inspiration from this system and is now also online.

Recently several government bodies, such as Ministry of Finance, Bank of Mongolia, General Tax Administration, National Transportation Department and others, have collaborated and launch a website www.smartcar.mn. Through this site vehicle owners, both individuals and organizations, can pay vehicle taxes, driver’s insurance payments, traffic tickets and receive other vehicle related services.

The General Authority for Intellectual Property and State Registration recently announced that they are in process of preparation and implementation of a “One citizen, one registration” project. According to officials, one of the main purposes of this project is to create a unified national registration database for ownership and property related information of natural personas and legal entities. This project aims to eliminate duplication and discrepancies in information over multiple platforms and create a unified national registration database. Such database is planned to accessible online both for internal access for government bodies as well as to general public with certain limitations. This project envisages the use of digital signatures by individuals to obtain online services from government bodies. Currently, digital signatures used only by legal entities for online tax filing and public tenders (bidding). While this project is in planning stages and has yet to be approved by the Government, we have high hopes for successful implementation. Officials claim that, if this project gets approved, this will decrease the amount of paperwork, will be cost and time saving both for general public and government bodies, government services will be easier, more accessible and closer to general public, and for foreign investors.

At such rate of increasing online government services, it looks like in coming years we should expect less bureaucracy and more accessibility from Mongolian government bodies, which should contribute to increasing economic activity in the developing nation.

Mongolia Deliberates Major Tax Revamp

Under the leadership and coordination of the Ministry of Finance, consultations on the Ministry’s proposed tax amendments started on March 5. The first session was held with business sector representatives regarding tax law reforms and amendments at the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Ministry of Finance is conducting a public discussion on revising 24 tax-related laws, including General Taxation Law of Mongolia, Laws on Corporate Tax, Personal Income Tax and Value Added Tax, in order to hear voices of taxpayers and collect best proposals from the relevant parties. The Government noted that no fundamental changes and revisions were made to tax laws in the last decade and the taxation law ‘package’ was created to improve tax environment and decrease some taxes. The taxpayers expect favorable environment from this tax reform.

According to the proposed tax law amendment, if the annual revenue of enterprises operating in Mongolia is lower than MNT 1.5 billion, the government will return 90 percent of paid taxes. Furthermore, small and medium sized enterprises which have MNT 50 million of annual revenue, will be able to pay only one percent tax from sale revenue. The proposed amendments would also reduce the number of reports required from SMEs. Companies with an annual income of over three billion MNT would be required to issue tax reports four times a year, and those with less than three billion MNT in annual income would be required to file reports twice per year. The amendments include major changes to the VAT law.

The proposed amendments expect to be discussed and voted on during the spring parliamentary session and, if approved, will come into force on  January 1, 2019.

Requirements for Offering Tax Consulting Services in Mongolia

Some activities must be conducted under a specialized license in accordance with Mongolian law. One of those activities is specialized tax consulting service. Tax consulting service is allowed to be conducted by a legal entity with a license granted by the appropriate government agency, similar to auditing. The Law on specialized tax consulting was adopted on December 27, 2012 and is the primary legislation to regulate this service.

According to the law, an authorized tax legal entity must satisfy a number of requirements, such as having a physical workplace, equipment and software necessary for the conduct of the required activities; having handbooks or manuals and methodology to be used in its operations; having archive for storage of work documents of consulting services; and ensuring confidentiality of a client information and information security.

In addition, there are specific human resources requirements. An authorized tax consulting company must have 3 and more specialized tax consultants and its founder must be a specialized tax consultant. License for specialized tax consultant is issued for 3 years term.

The specialized tax consulting service aims to provide a client with an opportunity to perform its duties to pay taxes and protect its rights and legal interests. The law stipulates that the tax consulting service includes following activities:

  • to provide advice on legislation on taxation and professional assistance regarding its implementation and promote;
  • to make tax estimation and adjustment, review primary and accounting documents, register tax influence and develop tax reports in accordance with approved template;
  • to communicate with taxation office and other relevant persons on behalf of a client.

As we mentioned in our earlier post, an auditing legal entity may carry out the auditing or review of financial statements and provide relevant financial services to the client. In addition, an auditing legal entity can engage in specialized tax consulting service after acquiring relevant license. If auditing legal entity provides the tax consulting service on the bases of additional license, it is not required to use a proper name which includes abbreviated letter of “STC” (Specialized tax consultant”) as an ordinary authorized tax legal entity does.

If a business offers tax consulting services without the required license, the company and personnel are subject to legal penalty.  A person may be fined for three hundred thousand tugrugs and a legal person is fined for three million tugrugs.

2018 Brings Changes to Personal and Corporate Taxes in Mongolia.

With the beginning of 2018 several new tax regulations are coming into force. In 2017 the Parliament of Mongolia has passed number of amendments to laws. In this article we will highlight more relevant new tax regulations, which are coming into force from January 1st of 2018.

Increase of personal income (salary) tax and social insurance fee

On April 14th, 2017 the Parliament of Mongolia passed several amendments to Law on Personal Income Tax, Law on Social insurance and relevant accompanying laws. Pursuant to amendments to Law on Personal Income Tax, beginning from January 1st, 2018 personal income (salary) tax shall be incremental. Individuals shall pay starting from 10 percent and maximum up to 25 percent income tax depending on their annual income. Non-residents, who are employed in Mongolia, now shall pay 20 percent income tax regardless of their income. Before non-residents paid 10 percent income tax.

Pursuant to amendments to Law on Social Insurance, the rate for pension insurance fee shall gradually increase over the next 3 years. In 2018 employees and employers shall each pay 8 percent, in 2019 – 8.5 percent, from 2020 – 9.5 percent of pension insurance fee. Individuals, who are self-employed and/or pay pension insurance fee on voluntary basis, shall pay 11 percent of pension fee in 2018, in 2019 – 11.5 percent, from 2020 – 12.5 percent.

Tax on transfer of land possession and land use rights

Pursuant to amendments to Law on Personal Income Tax from November 10th, 2017, now any free of charge transfer of land possession and land use rights (whether if transfer is under gift contract, or transfer between family members) are taxable. Before only purchase-sale of land possession and land use rights were taxable. Under new regulation any transfer of land right (whether paid or free of charge) is subject to 10 percent tax.

Tax on transfer of land rights, exploration and mining licenses

On November 10th, 2017, the legislators passed an amendment to Law on Corporate Income Tax, pursuant to which transfer of land rights, exploration and mining licenses via transfer of owner company’s shares is now taxable. In other words, when a shareholder transfers his/her shares of company that holds land rights (land possession or land use rights), exploration or mining licenses to third party, such transfer is subject to 30 percent income tax. In compliance with amendments to Law on Corporate Income Tax, The Minister of Finances has published relevant methodologies, forms and required documents necessary to determine and calculate the taxable income amount from such transfers.

Is your Mongolia Company Compliant? Are You Sure?

Our Mongolian lawyers often work with foreign companies to establish and close down Mongolian companies and Representative Offices in Mongolia. Almost every time, when closing down one of these Mongolian companies our lawyers encounter compliance issues and tax irregularities which must be dealt with carefully. Sometimes these are intentional, other’s they are caused by local employees who just didn’t know any better.

Just this week we have encountered a similar situation in connection with the Representative Office of an international company. The below is almost exactly the email one of our Mongolian lawyers sent to this client, explaining the situation in Mongolia. Names and identifying information have of course been removed.

“Yesterday afternoon we were summoned to the tax office. The tax inspectors showed us their preliminary calculations of the amount of taxable income of the Rep Office, from which pursuant to law, taxes must be withheld. The tax inspectors specifically pointed out that the Rep. Office employees and accountant had been negligent and failed in their responsibility to duly collect and maintain financial documentation, including failing to maintain appropriate ledgers, and financial reports.

For example, one employee withdrew a large sum of money from the Rep. Office’s USD account and didn’t deposit the money into the MNT account. We can assume that she may have taken this to the office as cash on hand, however because no official ledger was kept, there is no record of the office receiving that cash and it is impossible to prove that the money was so deposited.

Because of this lack of documentation, the tax inspectors must consider the value of that transaction as the withdrawing employee’s personal income. Now, since from the perspective of the tax office those funds were paid to the employee as personal income, the Rep. Office should have withheld the standard 10% income tax, which of course did not happen. Therefore, we must now make up for the value of that 10% with a payment in taxes.

There are other examples where the Rep. Office gave donations or sponsorships to certain local events or business partners. Normally of course these payments are subject to tax. However, again, the Rep. Office did not withhold relevant taxes. There are quite a lot of such transactions, and unfortunately, most are relatively large sums.

Yesterday, we met with the tax inspectors and reviewed all financial documentation again, seeking to find documentation for those transactions the tax office as identified as suspicious. We were able to find corroborating documentation for some transactions, but not all. All of those remaining have been identified by the tax office, added up, and the value is are required to be paid to the tax office before we will be allowed to finally liquidate the Rep. Office. Because of the relatively large amount of unpaid taxes, the Rep. Office is also subject to a fine, which must also be paid prior to liquidation.

Once the inspection is finished completely, the tax office will specify the exact amount of taxable income in the official inspection decision.”

To avoid this, we recommend your Mongolia company implements a corporate compliance system, which includes oversight of accounting issues by a local accounting firm. Our firm regularly works with approved Mongolian accountants, and is able to make recommendations and provide accounting support.

Mongolia Tax on Gasoline and Diesel Fuel

We continue to introduce various Mongolian taxes to be aware of. The Law on Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Tax was adopted on June 2, 1995, yet only came into force on  June 6, 1995.

According to this law, the tax is levied on all types of gasoline and diesel fuel whether produced within the territory of Mongolia, or imported into Mongolia. This tax is levied on every ton of fuel calculated as follows.

Gasoline up to 90 octane will be taxed at 20,350 MNT per ton, while gasoline with octane over 90 will be taxed at 25,700 per ton. Diesel fuel will be taxed at a substantially lower rate of 2,140 MNT per ton. This suggests the government recognizes the importance of diesel fuel in economic activities such as logistics and transportation of goods.

This tax is different and in addition to the tax levied on petroleum and diesel fuel in accordance with Law on Excise Tax. The purpose of the Excise Tax is to limit harm to the society or reduce the worst effect of the products as like as international standards. The excise tax on petroleum and diesel fuel is expected to be increased on July 1, 2017 and October 1, 2017 respectively.The tax on gasoline and diesel fuel produced on the territory of Mongolia is levied by the National tax offices and the tax on imported gasoline and diesel fuel is levied by the Customs offices in accordance with the amounts above.

Several changes to Mongolian taxes have been ratified recently by the Mongolian Parliament as a means to raise additional revenue in hopes of improving the state budget. The new implemented tax on gasoline and diesel fuel is primarily intended to raise revenue.

Foreign Investors in Mongolia: Know the Immovable Property Tax

The Immovable Property Tax Law was adopted in 2000 by the Mongolian Parliament and has been effective since 2001, over 16 years. Under the law, tax is imposed on all kinds of immovable properties which cannot be used for their original purpose when they are separated from the land. All persons or legal entities, who own immovable property in the territory of Mongolia, are considered taxpayers.

Local governments at the provincial level, and in Ulaanbaatar, are responsible for imposing a tax on immovable property within their respective locality. The tax level may be .6 – 1.0 of the value of the property as calculated considering the location, intended use, size, and overall demand of the property in question.

For tax purposes, the value of immovable property excluding the underlying land is determined, firstly, by the valuation as registered with immovable property state registry. If there is no such registration, the value is determined by the valuation of insurance on the property. And if there is no registration or insurance valuation, the value will be established as the value that is written down in financial records of the property owner in accordance with the law.

According to the law, the following immovable property types are exempt from immovable property tax:

  • immovable property of legal persons financed by state and local budget (state owned or funded enterprises);
  • residential houses;
  • buildings and developments for public use;
  • management of industrial and technological parks, unit production, structures within technological parks and other immovable properties; and
  • buildings and facilities constructed and registered in a designated tax free zone.

A Mongolian company or other legal entity which owns taxable immovable property will pay equal amounts of tax on the immovable property before the 15th of last month of each quarter for their annual tax liability. An individual citizen of Mongolia, or a foreign citizen who owns immovable property, must pay a once annual tax on immovable property before the 15th of February.

We have encountered many clients which confuse the immovable property tax with the tax on income from the sale of immovable property, but these are not the same. The tax on income from sale of immovable property is a onetime tax assessed upon transfer of real estate, and will be equal to 2% of the transaction cost. In contrast the Immovable property tax is owed each year for the duration of ownership of the property.

Introduction to the Mongolian Excise Tax

The Excise Tax Law was adopted by the Mongolia Parliament on June 29, 2006 and became effective from January 1, 2007. The law has been amended several times and has been the subject of a Supreme Court interpretation in 2007.

The law’s purpose is to establish parameters with respect to imposing excise tax on goods, whether imported or locally manufactured, as well as on special purpose apparatuses and equipment utilized for individuals and legal entities engaged in the paid quiz or gambling games.

According to the law, following goods shall be subject to excise tax:

  • all kinds of alcoholic drinks;
  • all kinds of tobacco;
  • gasoline and diesel fuels;
  • passenger vehicles.

The excise tax is also imposed on activities of individuals and legal entities engaged in paid quiz or gambling games and on equipment used for such games, such as gaming tables or electronic wheels, automatic games, cashier devices or devices which calculate and display gaming results or keeps track of bids. The excise tax to be imposed on goods, other than spirits distilled in Mongolia, are due before 25th of each month, in advance.

Excise taxpayers are the individuals and legal entities which import and sell the goods as described above, and those which engage in activities of paid quizzes or gambling games. In the event goods subject to the excise taxes are donated or transferred to another party free of charge, as well as when used internally by an individuals and or legal entity, an excise tax shall be imposed.

An excise tax equal to MNT 36,250,000 (approximately US$ 14,800) per month, is imposed on the activities of individuals and legal entities which operate paid quizzes or gambling games via cyber, internet or mobile networks.

The some goods are exempted from excise tax under the law, such as goods produced within the territory of Mongolia solely for export; Mongolian traditional home-made liquor distilled from milk for household use; snuff tobacco; legally obtained and imported duty free alcohol and tobacco; dual-fuel cars; cars running on liquefied gas; and electric cars.

The recent amendments to the state budget include provisions to increase excise taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel. The excise tax on passenger cars will be increased based on the vehicle’s engine capacity. The excise tax on alcohol, excise tax on cigarettes, and customs tax on cigarettes will also increase. If the amendment is approved by the Parliament, these proposed excise tax increases to take effect on April 1, 2017.