Tax
The Tax Code with flat corporate tax and hydrocarbon-specific regimes
The Tax Code of 2000 sets corporate profit tax at 20 percent, VAT at 18 percent, and progressive personal income tax. Oil and gas contractors operate under production sharing agreements with their own tax terms that override the general Code.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National. Administered by the State Tax Service under the Ministry of Economy.
- Deadline — Annual profit tax return and payment: 31 March following the reporting year
- Deadline — VAT returns: monthly, by the 20th of the following month
Governing law
- Tax Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan2000, as amended annually
- Production Sharing Agreements ratified by law — separate hydrocarbon tax regimes
In practice
Corporate profit tax is 20 percent and VAT is 18 percent with a registration threshold. Personal income tax operates on a two-band scale, and since 2019 private sector employees below a monthly threshold have benefited from a seven-year exemption designed to formalise employment. The most important structural feature is that petroleum operations conducted under ratified production sharing agreements are taxed according to the terms of those agreements, which prevail over the Tax Code — so the general Code is not a reliable guide to the taxation of the country's largest industry. Tax disputes are heard by the administrative-economic courts after internal appeal.