An IMF-led expert team has completed a comprehensive assessment of Armenia’s tax administration system, identifying strong progress in digital services and transparency while flagging persistent weaknesses in audits, debt management, and data analytics.

The review was conducted from May 12 to May 27, 2025, using the Tax Administration Diagnostic Assessment Tool (TADAT), which provides a performance baseline to help governments set reform priorities and track future improvements. The mission was led by Michael Hardy of the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department and included experts from Sweden and France, along with external specialists.

During the mission, the team held extensive meetings with State Revenue Committee (SRC) Chairman Eduard Hakobyan, senior SRC officials, Ministry of Finance representatives, field staff, and members of business associations and the tax profession.

According to the final assessment, Armenia’s tax authority demonstrated several key strengths, including strong electronic registration, filing, and payment systems; effective use of social media to inform and educate taxpayers; well-designed compliance improvement plans; solid management of IT and data risks through ISO 27001 certification; timely resolution of disputes; and good transparency through the publication of plans.

The report noted that the SRC has made “very effective use of information technology” to support voluntary compliance and has built solid foundations in compliance risk management.

At the same time, the assessment identified several areas requiring improvement. Key weaknesses included underdeveloped audit practices and other techniques to ensure correct reporting, insufficient on-time payment and debt management processes, limited access to banking information, immature analytics and data-matching capabilities, and gaps in formal human capital risk management.

While Armenia displays many elements of an effective compliance framework, the IMF team said execution remains a challenge, particularly in audits, rulings, and debt collection, “especially for larger taxpayers,” where performance continues to lag behind international best practice.

The report also pointed to a broader institutional issue, noting limited evidence of a culture of continuous improvement. “There is not yet strong evidence of a culture of continuous development, where governance and monitoring processes are used to identify future improvements, rather than to merely check past performance,” the assessment concluded.

The draft report was presented to the SRC at the end of the mission. Written comments from Armenian authorities were incorporated into the final version, which was subsequently reviewed and cleared by the TADAT Secretariat.