On March 14, a training on Social Entrepreneurship Institute provided by the new Law on Non-Governmental Organisations was organised in the scope of the EU-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project for the representatives of civil society organisations in Charentsavan City.
Ms Kristina Evoyan, participant of the training is a social worker and civil society activist, aims to establish a non-profit organization and engage in social entrepreneurship.
“We have a new idea of involving elderly people in social entrepreneurship. Currently the new law allows NGOs to engage in social entrepreneurship. The information I have got here will be very useful for my future activities,” Kristina Evoyan said.
Ms Liana Harutyunyan, representative of “Likiu Land” Charitable NGO, highlighted the information on taxation in case of non-profit organisations are engaged in entrepreneurship: “I received the answers to all the questions I was interested in regarding the Circulation Tax and VAT.”
Mr. Hakob Avagyan, the Executive Director of the Project Partner SME Partnership Association of Armenia, Business and Related Sectors’ Coordinator of the project described the cases in where the entrepreneurship is considered social, how it is organized, as well as how the accounting shall be conducted and other important issue.
In the case of the NGO engaged in social entrepreneurship, there is often a problem of distinguishing taxable or non-taxable income. According to Hakob Avagyan, it is often considered that if of the contract with the party is a grant contract, then the proceeds are not taxed. But that is not true. It is possible that the SRC shall consider it as taxable.
And in order to avoid such problems, the NGOs should apply to the Ministry of Finance, where a temporary commission is formed and the issue of taxable or non-taxable income is examined.
After the training, he answered the questions. She also said that CSOs are provided with free expert advice and support within the framework of the project.
If you also are a civic activist and want to receive legal support, please contact us at [email protected], register for the upcoming training to receive legal advice.
The “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project is implemented with the financial support of the European Union by a Consortium of civil society organisations, which are the Armenian Lawyers’ Association (lead organisation), Agora Central Europe (NGO based in the Czech Republic), the Armenian Centre for Democratic Education-CIVITAS, the International Centre for Human Development, the SME Cooperation Association and the Union of Communities of Armenia.
The project aims to enhance the influence of civil society organisations (CSOs) and CSO coalitions/networks on public policies in Armenia. This will allow organisations that are already working in sectoral coalitions to access additional resources, new groups of civil society experts to come together and encourage place their causes on the local and national policy agenda, to identify common concerns and priorities and approach government bodies with constructive and strategic policy engagement initiatives.
The project will provide sub-grants to CSOs and CSO coalitions for developing public policies and bringing significant changes in the 9 target sectors selected within the project, including those of justice, education and business.
