Postcard from Bishkek

The other day we had a visit at the hotel from some officials who seemed to be convinced that there was “something wrong”. It’s not the first time we’ve had such a visit – so we went into “automatic mode” and asked – “where are your papers?”.  They fished out their ID-cards and so that […]

July 1st is another of those professional holidays which were a feature of the Soviet Union which has been passed over and continued in the newly independent states that emerged – including the Kyrgyz Republic.  This one is Tax Inspectors’ Day! The role of the tax inspector is to ensure that people pay the right […]

According to Benjamin Franklin, there are two certain things in life: Death and Taxes.  In Kyrgyzstan you used to be able to add a third: the annual Tax Inspection. The appearance of the tax inspector was enough to cause palpitations for the Accountant and Director of many firms – even the most diligent and accurate […]

One of the most important aspects of our job as a tour operator is to think ahead and try to foresee what could possibly go wrong, and then to plan to avoid that situation or, at least, to plan a course of action to minimize the problems that are caused as a result.

The other day, we had a very strange visit from the tax inspector. Actually, there were two of them.  It was obvious that they were from the tax authority because one of them was in uniform.  Yes, tax inspectors here in Kyrgyzstan have a uniform.  He also showed us his identity card, and, to be […]

This page was written in 2005, and arose out of a disputed tax inspection … we appealed to the courts against the inspector’s judgment and at that time the court case described here was still proceeding.