Armenian VAT on Stripe Digital Services in QuickBooks

A software company in Austin sells a $30 monthly plan. A designer in Yerevan subscribes. Under Armenia's Tax Code, that single sale is enough: a foreign company selling electronic services to Armenian individuals has to register with the State Revenue Committee and pay 20 percent VAT, with no threshold to cross first. The registration is online and takes a working day. The part that catches people is the timing. Armenia taxes these sales on payment, by quarter, at one exchange rate, which is not how Stripe Tax counts them.

Stripe's Armenia entry gives the short version: "Remote sellers providing electronically supplied services (digital products) to individuals in Armenia have to register for tax from their first sale there. Sales to business customers don't trigger any tax registration obligations as remote sellers aren't required to collect tax on those sales." It lists the registration threshold as "1 transaction" and adds that "Stripe only supports collecting VAT for digital services" in Armenia.

This guide works from the official English translation of the Tax Code of the Republic of Armenia on the government's ARLIS legal database, the Government decisions that set the list of electronic services and the registration and payment procedures, and Stripe's documentation. It covers who is caught, how the customer's location is decided, registering, the rate, the quarterly return, the payment-based tax point, a worked example, and what reaches QuickBooks. It is bookkeeping guidance, not tax advice.

Acodei brings Stripe Tax amounts into QuickBooks, so the Armenian VAT you collect sits in a liability account when each quarter closes. Start a free trial.

The legal basis

Two articles of the Tax Code do the work.

• Article 288, part 9.1, added by law HO-359-N of 17 November 2021: "In case a non-resident organisation not having a permanent establishment in the Republic of Armenia provides electronic service to a natural person who is not considered to be an individual entrepreneur or a notary, the non resident organisation shall be placed on record-registration with the tax authority, in accordance with the procedure prescribed by the Government." The tax authority publishes the list of registered providers on its website.
• Article 70, part 2, point 5, which puts "the obligation for VAT calculation and payment" on the non-resident in that same case.

The registration procedure comes from Government Decision 184-N of 17 February 2022, and the list of electronic services from Decision 178-N of the same date.

One caution about currency of the text. The English translation used here is current to law HO-72-N of 26 March 2025. EY reports that Armenia enacted a further law, HO-234-N, on 6 May 2026, with most changes in force from 1 July 2026 and some from 1 January 2027, including what EY calls "clarification of VAT obligations for non-resident suppliers." We could not read that law in an official English text. Before you file, ask an Armenian adviser whether it changes anything below for your sales.

What counts as an electronic service

Article 4(1)(48) defines electronic services as services provided over an information and telecommunication network, "including via the Internet, provision whereof is impossible without the use of information technology," and leaves the list to the Government. Decision 178-N sets out 18 items. Among them:

• "developing, updating and current maintenance of software (including electronic platform)"
• "granting the right to use software (including electronic platform), computer and on-line games"
• "providing advertising services, advertising platforms"
• "providing consultation"
• "providing domain names, hosting services"

SaaS, apps, games, digital media and online courses all fit. Note that consultation is on the list. Some countries carve out services delivered by email (North Macedonia does). Armenia's list includes consultation provided over the network, so a paid "ask an expert" product sold online to an Armenian individual is likely in scope.

The decision also excludes some things: goods or services ordered online but delivered without the internet, software handed over on a physical medium, and internet access itself.

How the customer's location is decided

This is where Armenia differs from most of the first-sale countries. Article 39(2.1)(4) treats an electronic service to an individual as supplied in Armenia when one of four conditions points there:

• the customer's place of residence
• the location of the bank holding the account used to pay, or of the electronic money operator
• the country where the network address the customer uses is registered
• the international country code of the phone number used to receive the service or given when paying

If Armenia and another country both qualify, Armenia wins when more of the four conditions point to it. With an equal number, "the service provider shall determine the place of provision of electronic services independently."

Stripe Tax works differently. For invoices and subscriptions it uses one address for the customer: the shipping address if there is one, then the billing address, then the payment method's billing details, then the IP address. Checkout uses the address collected in the session. Armenia's four tests don't mention a billing address, and Stripe doesn't weigh several indicators against each other. In most cases the two methods agree. Where they don't, for example an Armenian resident paying with a card issued abroad, the law's test is the one that counts, so keep the evidence your checkout collects.

Business customers sit mostly outside the regime

For a sale to an Armenian VAT payer, Article 70(2) puts the VAT on the customer "as a tax agent," and says the VAT threshold "shall not be considered." The Armenian business accounts for it, and you don't.

There is a narrow exception in the same point 5. If the Armenian business is a micro-enterprise or pays turnover tax instead of VAT, the obligation falls back on the non-resident. That case sits outside Stripe's model. Stripe's customer tax ID table lists am_tin, the Armenia Tax Identification Number (format 02538904), as affecting the tax calculation, with the footnote "Stripe Tax won't apply tax if this tax ID is provided, in line with the relevant laws." Stripe can't tell from the number whether the business pays VAT or turnover tax. If you sell to small Armenian businesses, ask your adviser how to treat them. Our entry on the Stripe customer tax ID covers collecting tax IDs at checkout.

Registering from abroad

Decision 184-N sets out a fully online procedure:

1. Answer the screening questions. You enter the e-VAT system for non-resident VAT payers and answer online questions, which are offered "in Armenian, English or Russian languages."
2. Sign up. You confirm an email address and activate the link sent to it.
3. Apply. You submit the application in e-VAT. It "shall be submitted exclusively in an electronic form." The form asks for a named contact for the company, with email and phone.
4. Get a TIN. The authority registers you "not later than within one working day," granting electronically "a taxpayer's identification number (TIN), a user name and a password."

The procedure doesn't call for a local tax representative, which is the requirement that slows registration in North Macedonia. Stripe's Armenia entry links its registration step to the State Revenue Committee's e-VAT login on taxservice.am. Once registered, add the registration to Stripe Tax so it starts charging Armenian consumers.

The rate

Article 63(1): VAT "shall be calculated at the rate of 20%." Article 61(1) makes the tax base the value "without VAT," so the 20 percent is added on top of a tax-exclusive price. A $30 plan carries $6.00 of VAT.

If you price tax-inclusive, the same 20 percent sits inside the price: one-sixth of the total. Article 63(2) has a separate 16.67 percent figure, but it applies where a payer didn't treat itself as a VAT payer or didn't show VAT separately. It's not a reduced rate for digital sellers.

The tax point is the end of the quarter in which you're paid

Article 40(2.1) sets the time of supply for registered non-resident e-service providers as "the last day of the quarter, which includes the date of payment and/or partial payment for the electronic service provided."

Two things follow from that sentence:

• Payment decides the quarter, not the invoice. An invoice issued in March and paid in April belongs to the second quarter.
• Every sale in a quarter shares one date. All of them are treated as supplied on the quarter's last day.

Stripe counts it the other way. Its tax reports documentation says: "Stripe Tax records tax when the invoice finalizes, before payment. A failed or canceled payment doesn't decrease the total tax reported." For one-off Checkout payments the two dates fall together. For subscription invoices that finalize in one quarter and are paid in the next, after a failed payment and a retry, Stripe's quarter and Armenia's quarter disagree. Our glossary entry on the tax point covers the general idea.

Converting to drams

Article 16(1)(2.1) sets the tax base for these sales "as of the day constituting the time of provision of electronic service based on the average exchange rate for the given day in currency markets as published by the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia." Since the time of provision is the quarter's last day, the whole quarter converts at one rate: the Central Bank's average rate on 31 March, 30 June, 30 September or 31 December.

That is simpler than the per-invoice conversion most countries use, and it means the dram figure is known only once the quarter ends.

The return and the payment

The return. Article 75(3): a registered non-resident providing electronic services to individuals submits, "prior to and including the twentieth day of the month following the reporting quarter," a VAT calculation report. That is a separate form from the unified VAT and excise report Armenian VAT payers file.

The payment. Article 78(3): the VAT is paid by the same deadline, the 20th of the month after the quarter, under the Government's procedure.

How you pay. Decision 406-N allows payment "via a bank transfer" or "with payment cards" through the e-VAT system. A foreign-currency transfer is converted to Armenian drams on its way in, and the liability is settled in drams.

The quarter-end deadlines fall on 20 April, 20 July, 20 October and 20 January.

A worked example: one quarter

An Austin company sells a $30 monthly plan, priced exclusive of tax, and registers in e-VAT before opening sales to Armenia.

1. Registration. It answers the e-VAT questions, applies, and gets its TIN the next working day. It adds the Armenian registration to Stripe Tax.
2. January and February. 50 consumers in Yerevan and Gyumri renew each month. Stripe adds 20 percent: $6.00 per invoice, $300.00 a month.
3. March. 50 invoices finalize on 1 March. Forty-nine pay that day. One card fails, and Stripe's retry collects it on 3 April.
4. What Stripe reports for the quarter. Tax is recorded at finalization, so Stripe's first-quarter total is 150 invoices × $6.00 = $900.00.
5. What the Armenian return covers. Under Article 40(2.1), only payments received in the quarter count. That's 149 payments, $894.00 of VAT. The late $6.00 belongs to the second quarter.
6. Conversion. Suppose the Central Bank's average rate on 31 March is 390 drams to the dollar (an illustrative figure, not a real rate). The quarter's VAT is $894.00 × 390 = 348,660 drams.
7. A business customer. A Yerevan studio buys 5 seats and enters its am_tin at checkout. Stripe charges no tax, and the sale stays off the return. The studio accounts for the VAT as tax agent.
8. The return and payment. By 20 April, the company files the VAT calculation report and pays 348,660 drams by card in e-VAT. Its card statement shows $896.70 for the payment.

What reaches QuickBooks, and what you book yourself

Acodei syncs the tax Stripe Tax calculated, so Stripe Tax has to be active in your Stripe account, and your Armenian registration has to be set up in Stripe first.

For a US QuickBooks company, Acodei's method is the Tax Product: a non-inventory "Sales Tax" product mapped to a liability account, with all Stripe Tax amounts on a sale rolled into one line on the QuickBooks invoice or sales receipt. QuickBooks' Sales Tax Center doesn't let third parties create official tax rates for US companies, which is why the product approach is the one that works there. It needs Stripe Tax used with Stripe Invoicing or Stripe Checkout. Each $30 renewal in the example arrives with one $6.00 tax line, and the VAT builds up in the liability account. You then use Stripe's tax reports to file and pay from that account.

For a QuickBooks company outside the US, Acodei can map individual Stripe tax rates to QuickBooks tax codes you set up. One code at 20 percent covers Armenian sales, and it appears on its own line in QuickBooks' tax reporting.

The business sale, item 7. Stripe charged no tax on it, so no Armenian VAT reaches the liability account.

Refunds. Acodei's documentation says a refund issued through a credit note carries the line-level tax breakdown. A refund made on the payment alone may not show how much was tax, and that case can need a manual adjustment in QuickBooks. Use credit notes for Armenian refunds so the tax side stays clear.

The quarter's payment, item 8. The liability account holds tax on what Stripe recorded. The return pays tax on what was paid in the quarter. Before you file, build the payment-basis figure from Stripe's data: the invoice's status_transitions.paid_at timestamp is the payment date. In the example, debit the tax liability $894.00, debit exchange loss $2.70, and credit the bank $896.70. The $6.00 for the April payment stays in the liability account and goes out with the second quarter's return.

The same liability account holds US sales tax and every other country Stripe Tax collects for, so note the Armenian slice each quarter. Our guide to reconciling the Stripe Tax report in QuickBooks covers the liability side, and the itemized export lets you filter on country_code AM.

Common mistakes with Armenian VAT on Stripe sales

• Waiting for a threshold. There isn't one. Article 288(9.1) applies once you provide an electronic service to an Armenian individual.
• Filing Stripe's quarterly total as is. Stripe records tax at finalization. Armenia counts payments received in the quarter. Invoices that straddle a quarter end move.
• Converting each invoice separately. The whole quarter converts at the Central Bank's average rate on the quarter's last day.
• Looking for a representative. The e-VAT procedure doesn't require one. It's an online registration with a TIN within one working day.
• Assuming consultation is out. Decision 178-N lists "providing consultation" as an electronic service.
• Treating every am_tin as a VAT payer. Micro-enterprises and turnover-tax payers push the VAT back to you.
• Relying on a 2025 text in 2026. Law HO-234-N changed rules for non-resident suppliers from July 2026. Check the current version before filing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do foreign SaaS companies have to register for VAT in Armenia?

Yes, if they sell to individuals there. Article 288(9.1) of the Tax Code requires a non-resident without a permanent establishment that provides electronic services to Armenian individuals to register with the tax authority, with no turnover threshold. Registration is online through the e-VAT system, and a TIN is issued within one working day.

What is the VAT rate on digital services in Armenia?

20 percent under Article 63(1) of the Tax Code, added on top of the price because the tax base is the value without VAT. A $30 subscription carries $6.00 of VAT. If you price tax-inclusive, the VAT is one-sixth of the total.

How often do foreign digital sellers file Armenian VAT returns?

Quarterly. The VAT calculation report is due by the 20th of the month after each quarter, and the tax is paid by the same date, in drams, by bank transfer or card through e-VAT. The sales in a quarter are those paid in it, converted at the Central Bank's average rate on the quarter's last day.

Does Stripe Tax charge Armenian business customers?

No, if you store their Armenia Tax Identification Number as an am_tin tax ID. Stripe marks it as affecting the tax calculation and doesn't apply tax. Under the Tax Code, an Armenian VAT payer accounts for the VAT as tax agent, but a micro-enterprise or turnover-tax payer doesn't, and the VAT on those sales falls on you.

Why doesn't my Stripe Tax report match my Armenian return?

Because the two count at different moments. Stripe records tax when an invoice finalizes. Armenia treats a sale as supplied on the last day of the quarter in which it was paid. An invoice finalized in one quarter and paid in the next is in Stripe's first quarter and Armenia's second.

The short version

Twenty percent from the first sale to an Armenian individual, registered online in a day, with no representative. Returns are quarterly, due with payment by the 20th of the following month, in drams at one Central Bank rate. The quarter holds what was paid in it, not what Stripe finalized, so reconcile on payment dates before you file. Our guides to the countries that register you from the first sale, Georgian VAT and North Macedonian VAT cover how other countries handle the same sales.

Acodei syncs Stripe Tax into QuickBooks, so each Armenian quarter starts from the liability account instead of a spreadsheet. Start a free trial.