Armenia switches VAT foreign-currency conversion to the previous business day's rate

What changed in detail

Armenia’s Law No. HO-234-N replaces Article 16 of the Tax Code on the accounting of transactions denominated in foreign currency, changing the default conversion rule used to determine the taxable base, income and acquisition cost for VAT and other tax purposes. For the supply of goods, the performance of work and the provision of services, and for goods entering or leaving Armenian territory to or from an EAEU member state, the average exchange rate to be used is the rate published by the Central Bank of Armenia for the previous business day rather than the same-day rate previously used. A corresponding change to Article 16.1(2) replaces the reference to the average rate published up to 16:00 on the given day with the rate published on the previous business day. The change took effect on 1 July 2026.

What it means

This looks like a small mechanical change but it touches every foreign-currency invoice, and it is easy to implement wrong because “previous business day” is not the same lookup as “today, before 16:00” under the old Article 16.1(2) rule. A system that simply moves its lookup back one calendar day rather than one business day will misprice invoices issued after a weekend or a public holiday. Because the rule also governs goods crossing the border to or from an EAEU member state, customs-linked VAT calculations need the same fix, not just sales invoicing. The change shares its effective date and its source law, HO-234-N, with Armenia’s VAT registration cure window — both provisions took effect 1 July 2026 out of the same act.