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TAX FILING DATES STAGGERED TO IMPROVE COMPLIANCE

15/08/2018 08:27:00 BY KWANELE DHLADHLA

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MBABANE – As means to improve on tax compliance, a much more relaxed tax filing season with extended deadlines has been launched.

The Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) Commissioner General Dumisani Masilela yesterday officially launched the tax filing season following requests from different strategic stakeholders.
Masilela encouraged businesses and the public to “play its part towards the kingdom’s prosperity by being 100 per cent tax compliant.”
Large Companies and those Registered for Value Added Tax (VAT) will now be expected to submit their Income Tax Returns by December 31, 2018 while individuals (Employment Income) have a new deadline of November 30, 2018.
For all Non -VAT Registered Small and Medium (SME’s) the submission date remains October 31, 2018.

The CG in exercising his discretion has introduced staggering of the due dates for submission of income tax returns between different taxpayer segments.
“The new due dates have been established to allow taxpayers time to prepare and file correct tax returns,” explained Masilela.

It was also stated that anyone who fails to furnish a return within the stipulated period commits an offence and would be liable on conviction to a fine of E10 000 or imprisonment for a period of up to one year or to both.
A person who makes false statements or entries in a return with an intention to evade arrest or assists someone with evading assessment or taxation commits an offence and would be liable to a fine not exceeding E50 000 or imprisonment of five years on conviction.

Masilela has previously mentioned that they continued to implement all suggestions made by taxpayers who were happy with the environment created.
The CG said even though filing compliance numbers had not reached satisfactory levels, it was encouraging that an improvement had been observed over the years.

“This is especially among the Large Taxpayers where income tax filing compliance has increased from 64.1 per cent in March 2016 to 80.1 per cent in March 2017.
However, we still have challenges with compliance levels among the Small and Medium Enterprises where the compliance levels for the same period have dropped from 47.7 per cent to 47 per cent,” added Masilela.