OREANDA-NEWS. Belarus simplified corporate tax procedures, however the pace of reforms is insufficient, the press-service of the World Bank said in a release.

The findings of the annual World Bank Group Doing Business report "Doing Business 2015: Going Beyond Efficiency" acknowledge that in the past few years Belarus improved its system for keeping online records for corporate income tax and value added tax. The system now automatically updates all relevant tax rates, alerts users of potential errors and automatically collects and checks data required for filling out tax returns. Belarus also simplified its rules for deducting expenses for the calculation of corporate income tax.

The WB study accentuates the point that Belarus made paying taxes easier for companies by introducing an electronic system for filing and paying contributions for the obligatory insurance for work accidents-and by simplifying the filing requirements for corporate income tax and value added tax (VAT). On the other hand, it increased the ecological tax rate and made bad debt provisions nondeductible for purposes of the corporate income tax.

As a result, Belarus has improved its ranking in the WB Doing Business / Paying Taxes rating climbing from position 107 in 2014 to position 60 in 2015.

This year Belarus ranks 57th among 189 countries analyzed in the survey. Belarus is among the top performers with regard to property registration, enforcement of contracts, and starting a business. At the same time, the survey indicates that the pace of reforming the regulatory framework is still insufficient for Belarus to considerably improve its ranking. The WB survey indicates that Belarus needs to further improve its environment for doing business by optimizing procedures for getting electricity supply, liberalizing foreign trade regulations and access to credit resources.