Thankful for the IRS?

Since our US readers just finished filing tax returns, we thought you would appreciate this story of myself (Matin) and *Ibrahim (a co-worker) trying to pay taxes in our country. Hopefully no matter how bad your tax season was, you can read this story and say, "at least it's not that bad."

The saga actually started almost 3 weeks ago, when two teammates signed rental contracts on two new houses.  Rental contracts usually involve a pre-payment of about a year's worth of rent, and the government charges a 20% tax on the rent that is pre-paid.  Although the owner of the house technically owes the tax, it is the responsibility of the renter to withhold the 20% from the rent paid and take it to the Ministry of Finance (the Mustofiat) to pay on the owner's behalf.  Makes sense right? No.  Absolutely not.

Day 1

Ibrahim & I went to the Mustofiat with money and contract in hand.  Entering the main door, we deciphered the word "tax" in Persian on the sign of one office, so we headed that way.  After a short conversation with the men in the office, we figured out they were telling us that this was the place to pay corporate taxes, but not residential taxes.  So we walked upstairs to the office they directed us to, only to be told that wasn't the right place either.  You have to go to the small annex building around the back, they said.  So we went.  In this office sat four men who appeared to be doing absolutely nothing - not a single paper on any of their desks.  After 30 minutes of explaining what we wanted, they told us that we were in the right place, but they did not have our tax ID number:  we would have to go back to the first office to get the tax ID number. 

After obtaining the ID number, we returned to the annex office to pay.  Oh wait, they told us, these contracts don't begin until after the new year.  You'll have to come back after the new year to pay.  But since it was so close to lunchtime, they invited us to eat lunch with them.  Since we had already been there for more than 2 hours, we stayed to eat pilau with them.

Day 2 (a week and a half later)

We returned to the Mustofiat three days after Naw Roz, only to be told by the doorman that today was a holiday and nobody was working.  Why?, we asked, everybody else is back at work.  It turned out that he didn't actually know why no one there was working, but since there were no cars in the parking lot and he wouldn't let us in, we left.

Day 3 (the next day)

After language class we ate lunch and then went back to the Mustofiat....again.  We headed directly to the annex office, where we were greeted warmly and told that, in fact, the previous day had not been a holiday.  They were all at work and had no idea why the doorman told us the place was closed.

Following a short conversation during which they re-checked our tax ID number, they they informed us that their office can only sign for one of the the new houses - the other house had to be signed for by the office next door because it was in a different area of the city.  Of course, all of the people in that office had gone home for the day.  However, one of the guys offered to take us over to the main building where we could get the other signatures we needed, and then we could simply come back the next day for the final signature.  He led us through a series of five different offices, stopping in each one to obtain a signature from an individual who had absolutely nothing on his desk and did not read the paperwork.  Afterwards he told us that we were now able to go pay the tax for one house at a certain bank, but we would have to do it in the morning because they only accept taxes before lunch.

Day 4 (the next next day)

Growing frustrated with the amount of time this was taking, we decided to go straight back to the Mustofiat and get the remaining signatures so that we could take paperwork for both houses to the bank at the same time.  Soon after arriving at the second office, it became evident that no one from the first office had spoken with them, and we had to explain the entire situation over again.  After going through all five offices for signatures on the second set of paperwork, they told us that since the rent on the house was paid in US dollars but the tax had to be payed in local currency, we would need documentation of the exchange rate from the bank.  Off to the bank we went to obtain a signed slip of paper specifying the current exchange rate.

After returning with the paper, the office finally signed the papers and specified that we must pay the tax on this house at a certain bank as well - only it was a different bank than the one we had to pay the taxes on the first house at.  Still determined, we set off for this bank to pay the tax, which we were able to do after speaking with the manager and waiting in line...3 times.   We then set off to pay taxes on the first house at the first bank, but when we arrived we were told they did not accept taxes - only the second bank (the national bank) can take tax money.  Are you sure?  we asked, The Mustofiat specifically told us to come here.   It turned out they were sure - the instructions were printed on the papers we were carrying with us, only we couldn't read the Persian script!  So we left the first bank and retuned to the one where we had just paid taxes on one house, and stood in the same lines all over again.  Finally we obtained receipt of payment for both taxes, and we brought those back to the Mustofiat to place in our file.