“Will  the ”nanny at the expense of the state “program serve the purpose it has declared?” two opinions

As it is known, on January 26th, the RA government’s e-draft website published the “Procedure for the provision of assistance to persons on  parental care with children under three years old, combining the work with the child care in case of returning to work as soon as a child turns  2 years old, to submit proposals before February 12th. The document regulates the principles of beneficiaries’ selection, clarifies the use of the program, which makes the logic of state support more complete, but also raises a number of new issues.

One of the questions included in the Summary refers to the taxation of nurse payments and to the question  – who are paying the income tax, the parent or the nurse? In response to this question, in particular, it is stated that, in accordance with the RA Tax Code, the employer acts as a tax agent, in this case the beneficiary of the program –  parent for the payment of income tax from the amount paid to the nurse.

Member of the “Tsarukyan” faction of the RA National Assembly Shake Isayan expressed her concern over this issue in conversation with us. According to her, after getting acquainted with the procedure, it became clear to her that the emphasis of the key provisions of the order did not correspond to the logic of the amendments made to the RA Law on Employment and to the goals of the program presented to the MPs.

Meanwhile, representatives of the government emphasize that the existence of standards is quite natural, and the project was hard to imagine without them. Particularly, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Tadevos Avetisyan told WomenNet.am that it is not realistic to solve the problem of all mothers in Armenia and support them to return to work before the child turns two years old. According to Avetisyan, everything presented at this point is the first step, the RA legislation has not had such a program and has come to it as a result of rather complicated discussions.

Full text in Armenian