Clearance of barrels, registering vehicles and generally any business with a government entity will require citizens to have a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) from January 1 as the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) seeks to further widen the tax net.
On January 1 this year, when the GRA began implementing the Value Added Tax (VAT) businesses were required to show their VAT certificates with their TIN numbers and members of the public will now be required to have their own.
It was noted that approximately 95% of the active companies have been issued a TIN. “Registration is ongoing and since the GRA would be required to input the data, print and issue TIN certificates, by the end of Decem-ber, I am urging persons to apply as early as possible,” the GRA Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur said in prepared statement to the media at his Lamaha Street office on Thursday.
While there has been a favourable response from the self-employed category of workers, “the GRA is aware that there still is a significant number of persons to obtain theirs,” noted the GRA Commissioner
Around 43,000 TIN applications were processed and another 13,700 are on hand for processing. Included in the 43,000 are those who are registered for VAT. The Commissioner also stated that for the Christmas season the GRA will not stringently enforce the TIN for those persons clearing a barrel with personal effects, but in January the TIN requirement will be enforced.
It was stated that the incidents of employers deducting income tax and not paying it over will be brought to the fore as well as those who do not pay the correct amount of tax. The TIN will ensure that these practices are detected.
Within 10 minutes the TIN number can be processed once the application is submitted – if the applicant is willing to wait, said the GRA supervisor of the registry Corrine William-Wilson.
By next weekend the 13,700 applications on hand should be completed, noted William-Wilson. The TIN numbers are given in the form of a certificate and are mailed to applicants. Sattaur noted that to have the TIN in card form, will require funding so the certificates are being used.
Pointing it out as a major challenge, Sattaur said that in the employee category they anticipate approximately 150,000 applications since over the past weeks applications have been pouring in.
“We are working to ensure that we expedite the process and that our system is ready to take on the soaring number of applicants.”
The law stipulates that it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that their employees have a TIN since they would be required to quote this number when filing the Employer’s Return (Form 11) by February 28 next year. And employees will also be required to quote their TIN when filing their individual Income Tax return for 2007 by April 30 next year.
Last year the Income Tax (Amendment) No.2 Act 2006 was passed as Act No. 15 of 2006 paving the way for the introduction of the TIN.
Centralized
TIN registration forms are available at all GRA offices but TIN processing is centralized at the Georgetown office. Therefore the completed registration form must be returned to the Registry, IRD, GPO Building, Robb Street, Georgetown, or Internal Revenue branches countrywide.
Sattaur, in the prepared statement, told the media that TIN is simply a unique computer-generated number allocated to each taxpayer, whether they are an individual, a commercial business, a government department, public corporation, or a special body. This number will replace the Internal Revenue Department (IRD) numbers on P.A.Y.E. (pay as you earn) and importers/exporters and businesses registered for Value Added Tax (VAT) have been using TIN.
“It basically identifies tax payers for the purpose of all their transactions, including their tax and revenue liabilities, with the GRA,” he said in the statement.
Sattaur pointed out that all persons who conduct business with the GRA, whether it is obtaining a compliance certificate, claiming a tax refund or selling a motor vehicle, would first be required to obtain a TIN before the processing of any document could begin.
The law states that: “Notwithstanding any other law, any person who makes an application to or is issued any permission, licence, authority or any such other document by any of the following entities – a Government department, a public authority
