This tax season citizens will have far fewer options of places where they can submit their tax returns.
An advertisement in Saturday’s Stabroek News from the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) advised that tax sites have been established at the City Mall Camp Street and the Guyana Post Office Corporation on North Road to facilitate the submission of assessments of Income, Property, Corporation and Capital Gains Taxes for the year 2016.
These sites have been operating since Monday April 10, 2017 and will continue to function until April 28, 2017 during normal working hours.
This represents a significant reduction in the number of sites just two years after the GRA announced the launching of a series of permanent tax centres. This first centre which was opened in April, 2015 at the G3 Building at Diamond, East Bank Demerara was closed last year.
That centre and its planned successors were expected to provide taxpayers with basic services in a manner which is convenient to the taxpayer since they were to be placed in “strategic” locations.
Stabroek News also understands that persons submitting assessments are not being issued with receipts.
Stabroek News contacted the GRA for an explanation as to the limited number of tax sites and was told that the number was finalized by “administrative” decision.
Senior Manager Communication and Tax Advisory Services Division Gavin Lowe, told this newspaper that while his office had made recommendation for at least five other sites this recommendation was not approved by senior management and no communication was received as to the reason behind the decision.
Tax returns are due on or before May 2, 2017 and can be submitted at the mentioned sites, GRA Camp Street Headquarters or any of its regional offices. Regional offices will also be open on Saturday April 29 and Sunday April 30 to facilitate submissions while a tax site will be established at the Region 5, Regional Democratic Council from April 24 to April 28.
