The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) says it will start the payment of PAYE refunds for 2006 to 2011 early this month and advises taxpayers to ensure that their addresses correspond with the one affixed to their Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN).
In a press release, the GRA said the sums will be paid after the customary verification process has been conducted. This represents a major departure from what usually obtains with the payment of refunds which were only made for large amounts owed to taxpayers.
The exercise will see more than 60,000 recipients of refunds being made to employees who filed their individual returns along with their respective employer(s), who would have submitted their employers’ Form 2s. It will be facilitated using the Total Revenue Integrated Processing System.
Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur said that permission was given to prioritize and process the refunds due to Pay As You Earn (PAYE) taxpayers for the period using methodology which will see taxpayers placed in three categories based on the amount of the tax refund payable to them. The three bands are based on the value and number of refunds.
“As a result, taxpayers with refunds amounting to less than $500 will be given a tax credit, which will be used to offset any future liability, or outstanding debts for any tax,” he said. This measure will be applied, given the volume and value of the refunds for this category of taxpayers. Sattaur further noted that it would be impractical to either mail or ask taxpayers to come in to uplift these refunds, since the cost to the GRA and the taxpayers would exceed the value of the amount.
Taxpayers with refunds between $500 and $1,000 will be asked to visit the agency to uplift these sums. In this category, an estimated 5,000 taxpayers stand to benefit from the payout. The GRA will publish the names of about 500 eligible taxpayers weekly and they will have one month after the date of publication to collect the sums. Refunds that have not been uplifted by this category of taxpayers will be given as a tax credit against their names as in the case of the first category.
Category three will comprise taxpayers with refunds greater than $1,000 and they will receive a cheque from the GRA.
This transaction will be processed through an automated cheque generating system that will result in a significant amount of cheques being prepared for dispatch to the taxpayers.
The GRA says payments will start early this month and advises taxpayers to ensure that their addresses associated with their TINs have been updated to ensure that they get their refunds in a timely manner. This can be done easily by bringing in proof of address at the new GRA head office on Camp Street.
