Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has posted impressive collection of 1.055tri/- which is 95.6 per cent of the target of 1.103tri/- set for the month of July, with the taxman starting officially in this fiscal year to collect rental tax from tenants renting houses or rooms.
The taxman has registered an increment of 15.43 per cent in the month under review to 1.055tri/- compared to 914bn/- posted in July 2015. TRA Director of Tax Payer Services and Education, Mr Richard Kayombo, said that in 2016/17 financial year TRA targets to collect 15.1tri/- compared to 13.32tri/- of the previous year.
Mr. Kayambo that the tax regulator will begin house to house verifications of rental contracts and fees as basis for establishing and collecting the appropriate tax revenues.
“TRA requests landlords and tenants to be honest in stating the correct rental costs as basis for determining the tax revenues,” he said, adding that any fraudulent acts will amount in stern legal measures accompanied by heavy fines.
Tenants are supposed to pay TRA tax before paying their landlords the total amount as per their contracts. TRA will always ask for their contracts they entered with their landlords. On revenue collections for the previous month, Mr Kayombo said, “We have surpassed the target compared to the set target and what we collected in July, this year.”
The taxman has put in place feasible strategies in order to realise and surpass collection targets set by the government. One of the strategies mentioned is registration of new taxpayers as well as updating taxpayers’ information by ensuring that the unused TIN numbers are removed from the TRA system in Tanzania.
“Preparations for updating taxpayers’ information are at final stages, including taking photographs, fingerprints and taking important details of taxpayers to make sure that every business has only one TIN number and correct and reliable information,” he said.
Another initiative for the TRA is to visit taxpayers in their areas of business in order to educate them and make sure they implement various tax law amendments, which aim at enabling the regulator to reach its collection targets.
With regards to pay as you earn (PAYE), TRA will visit employers in various areas to verify and inspect the accuracy of the workers’ list and payment made to ascertain whether the PAYE is calculated and remitted to the government as intended.”
Besides the strategies, TRA will continue plugging loopholes for losses and make sure all businesspeople, who are required to use EFDs do it properly, including inspecting customers coming from shops to ensure they have valid and correct receipts for goods bought. Failure to give or demand receipts may attract a fine of between 30,000/- and 1.5m/-.
Source: Daily news
