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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
Public Communications Specialist
Tel: (592) 227-3680 ext 222 |
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GRA clears air on TIN misconceptions, individual response encouraging: December 5, 2007
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The Guyana Revenue Authority finds it necessary to clear the air on what seem to be growing misconceptions about the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) being peddled in some sections of the media.
As, the name suggests, the TIN is a number. This nine-digit number is being issued by the GRA to identify persons who conduct various transactions ranging from tax payment, filing tax returns obtaining compliance certificates required for transferring assets such as land and motor vehicle and renewing licences with the Licence Revenue Office.
The GRA wishes to make it categorically clear that the main intention of TIN is to provide taxpayers, whether individual or company, with more efficient services.
“Persons should be aware that TIN is not required to transact business at commercial banks or to collect remittances from any money transfer agency,” Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur said.
“Indeed the TIN will allow the GRA to improve the administration of other taxes; however, this is not to say that the GRA will make unnecessary demands from taxpayers. We can only demand taxes that are fairly due to the State,” he added.
Further it must be clear that there is no cost attached for the processing of TIN and therefore no one is authorized to charge a fee for the form, the processing or the certificate. Also, it is not a requirement to pay outstanding taxes before a TIN is issued since persons who have outstanding taxes may be allowed to use their existing number to do so.
While the main focus of the GRA at this point in time is to have employers obtain TIN for all their employees, it does not prevent employees from applying individually. It appears that employers did not commit to the exercise leaving an overwhelming number of individuals to apply independently which has become a bug-bear for the GRA to sort the applicants and ensure that they are assigned to the correct employer.
Nevertheless, Mr. Sattaur said, the main objective is to have employees obtain a TIN before December 31, 2007 and the GRA is working feverishly to ensure all the measures are effectively in place to facilitate the exercise.
The TIN Act places significant responsibility on the employers to ensure their employees obtain a TIN, especially since employers would be required to quote all of their employees TIN on January 14 when they would be required to remit December tax deductions.
Section 4 of the Income Tax (Amendment No 2) Act states, “Every employer shall record on the return made under Section 61 (2) (that is the Form 11), the TIN of every employee… from whose emoluments tax was deducted…”
“I want to emphasise that the failure by some employers to quote the TIN of their employees from whom they would have deducted taxes will result in them not being able to remit those taxes on time and this will result in them being penalised,” Mr. Sattaur said.
The GRA hopes that employers would not put the blame on the GRA when their employees do not furnish them with their TIN on time as employers who submitted their applications in bulk would have received the TIN numbers of their employees in bulk. However, individual applications are being confirmed with the TIN certificate being posted via registered mail to the applicant’s home address.
“I wish once more to make an ardent appeal to employers who have not yet responded to our call to get on board as early as possible and we would encourage them to utilise our electronic filing facility,” the GRA Head pleaded.
Meanwhile, the GRA would wish to commend all of the Commercial Banks, Laparkan, William Fogarty’s Limited, Guyana Stores Limited, some government Ministries, the National Library and the National Museum, among others for undertaking this activity seriously and ensuring that their employees obtain their TIN early.
The GRA has established an electronic system to facilitate large employers obtaining TIN for their employees.
“I have been advised that at present, TIN can be immediately issued to the staff of GUYSUCO without them submitting a single application form. We are still working with the Ministry of Finance to ensure that all Public Servants can also be issued with TIN in the same manner,” the Commissioner-General said.
Other large companies such as the Guyana Water Incorporated are seeking information about electronic filing and have been advised to pursue this course. Other interested organizations can contact the registry for more information on this facility.
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