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Khurshid Sattaur
Commissioner General
Mission Statement
Our mission is to promote compliance with Guyana’s Tax, Trade and Border Laws and Regulations through education, quality service and responsible enforcement, thereby contributing to the economic and social well being of the people of Guyana. |
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Nadia De Abreu
Director - Corporate Communications Unit
Tel: (592) 227-3680
ext 222 |
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Favourable response to TIN implementation
The implementation of the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) while still in its embryonic stage is progressing well.
There has been a favourable response thus far and the Guyana Revenue Authority is putting the necessary systems in place to ensure that persons who, owing to their own negligence, did not apply for a TIN prior to December 31, 2007 do so with ease.
While thus far, from the GRA’s standpoint, there has been a successful implementation; our systems have been in place and delivering; the first major test will be on January 14 when employers would remit December 2007 PAYE deductions on their employee’s behalf.
It must be noted however, that employers would only be able to remit the taxes of those employees who would have obtained a TIN. Persons found culpable of not having a TIN would be required to do so which may result in late submission and payment, which constitutes an offence under the Income Tax Act and the employer could be penalised.
It is for this reason that we have been emphasizing the employers responsibility in our Public Relations campaign since Section 4 of the Income Tax Amendment Act states, “Every employer shall record on the return made under section 61 (2) the TIN number of every employee …”
TIN was first introduced last year for Value Added Tax Registrants and importers processing commercial transactions at the Customs and Trade Administration. That phase of implementation was successful.
With effect from January 1 this year, the TIN implementation was taken not only to the two remaining areas of the GRA, the Licence Revenue Office and the Internal Revenue Department, but also to Government Agencies, Public Authority, Public Corporation and the Central Bank as provided for under the Income Tax Amendment Act since these agencies may require the TIN of a persons applying for a document or applying for a licence or Authority.
Over the past several months the GRA has been sensitizing the Guyanese public extensively on the TIN. Hundreds of Guyanese have been registered largely due to the infrastructural arrangements by the Internal Revenue and employers.
However, there still remain literally hundreds more who are still to obtain their TIN. This is evident by large number of persons who are being turned away when they show up to have a transaction processed with the GRA because they did not heed our call to obtain their TIN before December 31 last.
Recognising that many persons have not heeded our call to have their TIN before the end of the year and in order to avoid an agonizing situation, the GRA has decided to give priority to TIN processing by persons conducting transactions with the Licence Office and the Internal Revenue since failure to provide a TIN will result in the transaction not being processed. It means that the individual will first have to apply and uplift his TIN before the application is processed.
However it must be noted that this preference for persons having transactions with the Licence Office and the Internal Revenue will only be for a limited time as we try to accommodate these late applicants.
We have said and we stand by our word - the GRA would not process any transaction without a TIN, except for those persons clearing barrels and personal effect packages, for which the GRA has temporarily waived the TIN requirement.
Until we feel we have adequately dealt with those persons conducting transactions with the Licence Office and the Internal Revenue, we would not therefore stringently enforce the TIN requirement for persons clearing barrels and gift packages. Persons would be informed by way of notification from the GRA when the TIN requirement for such transactions take effect.
Persons who would have applied for their TIN and are not in receipt of their certificates are asked to contact the Registry Section, GPO Building, Robb Street to uplift their number while they await the arrival of their certificates by post. Such persons would be issued with a number which on production with some form of identification will be acceptable for processing transactions with the GRA.
The TIN certificates are sent by registered mailed and persons would be required to have a valid form of identification to uplift the certificate at the time of delivery.
Let me remind you once again that the TIN is a unique computer-generated nine- digit number which identifies persons for the purpose of transacting business with the GRA and those other agencies specified under the law and has replaced all existing Income Tax, Form 2 and Export Numbers and other numbers previously issued by the GRA.
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