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Before & After
Streamlined procedures simplify tax registration and bring transparency
A Tax Fairy Tale Comes True
Photo: Partners/Peggy Carlson
Before: Disorder, delay, and confusion reigned when Georgians tried to register their businesses legally. Bribery was a common way to cut through the chaos. Another response was to simply stay in the shadows and avoid registering altogether.
Photo: Partners/Morgan Morrow
After: USAID support to increase an agricultural association’s capacity has meant increased income from international buyers, which has given the community funds to rehabilitate houses and provide educational opportunities to children.
Tariel Chanturia, one of Georgia’s most renowned poets, faced an unexpected obstacle to publishing his newest poems. David Gotsiridze, director of the printing house Kedeli, explained that Chanturia would have to first register as an individual entrepreneur before publishing his new volume. Despite Gotsiridze’s assurance that the process would be fast and simple, Chanturia expected the worst – confusing procedures, long lines, multiple visits, and unofficial payments. When he walked into the tax inspectorate, Chanturia thought that he must have come to the wrong place. Delighted, Chanturia said that instead of chaos, there was no line “and the official asked how he could help me.” Registered immediately, Chanturia reached his hand into his pocket to pay the expected “gratuity.” The tax inspector refused and told him the service was free. “A fairy tale!” Chanturia said. “How could registration happen so easily? A couple of years ago, it would have taken all my lifetime, nerves, and half of my honoraria,” he said.
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