GRA to pursue $20B in outstanding taxes

Jan 22, 2018 News

…GuySuCo has not been remitting PAYE for employees for six years

The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) will be hastening efforts this year to collect billions of dollars in outstanding taxes. This is according to GRA Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia.
The tax chief noted that despite best efforts in 2017 whereby over $3B in arrears were collected between the Objections Finalization and the Arrears Collection Departments, there is still over $20B in taxes to be collected. Statia commented that the outcome of objections may be in doubt because of the provisional nature of the assessments.
However, the GRA Commissioner General said that even after the provisional assessments have been discharged, taxes outstanding will amount to over $14B. He emphasized that these outstanding taxes will have to be zealously prosecuted for collection with the declared amnesty.
Statia believes that the amnesty will garner an additional $5B in revenue collections.
The Commissioner General said that it is crucial that the agency clamps down on the billions of taxes owed by individuals and companies. The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is one entity which owes the treasury $8B in taxes. Kaieteur News understands that the entity has not paid P.A.Y.E for its employees since 2012.
AMNESTY
The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) will be providing a period of amnesty for delinquent taxpayers. This move by the authority would be in keeping with the measures announced by Finance Minister, Winston Jordan in his budget 2018 speech last year.

GRA Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia

Jordan had said that the period of amnesty for taxpayers—corporate and individual— would ensure they are able to get in order, the filing of true and correct tax returns and payment of their true and correct taxes.
The amnesty will be applicable to: Taxpayers who have principal taxes outstanding; Non-filers such as persons who are delinquent in the filing and payment; Taxpayers that filed individual and corporate tax returns, but in the process would have mistakenly underreported or understated their income or overstated deductions or credits; Taxpayers who filed but would have deliberately not declared or under declared their true income; and Taxpayers who are already subjected to completed audits and a determination was made that additional taxes are owed to the GRA and the additional tax is still outstanding.
He said that this amnesty will be in effect from January 1, 2018 through September 30, 2018. The Finance Minister said that taxpayers who file and pay all principal taxes on or before June 30, 2018 will have all interest and penalties waived, while those who file and pay all principal taxes between July 1, 2018 and September 30, 2018 will have 50 percent of interest and penalties waived.
The economist noted that taxpayers who expect to benefit from this amnesty must file true and correct returns. Those found to be in violation will be subject to an audit and the attendant penalties and interest will be applied. He said that GRA will be devoting increased resources to enforcement of the income tax laws.

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