2nd July 2024
Own Correspondent
A total number of 38 000 tax returns were filed against the expected 70 000 tax returns officials have revealed. Of those filed returns, 77% were submitted online showing an increasing appetite for technology by revenue clients countrywide.
For this season the filing requirements remain unchanged, with all individuals with a gross income more than P480 000 per annum being required to file a tax return.
Individuals whose gross income is less than P480 000 per annum are not required to file their tax returns on the following conditions: provided their total income:
i. arises solely from employment,
ii. is from a single employer, and
iii. deducted by the employer as Pay As You Earn (PAYE) make a call for all individual taxpayers to submit their returns for the Tax year 1st July 2023 to 30th June 2024.
“It is of utmost importance that filing of returns and payment of taxes are done on time and in compliance with relevant statutes,” said Ms Jeanette Makgolo, Botswana Unified Revenue Service(BURS) Commissioner General.
She said, “This exercise is by no means any form of tool to frustrate anyone but rather important for maintaining high levels of voluntary compliance and citizen’s confidence in the overall tax system.”
According to officials it may also be noted that tax filing statistics are some of the key indicators used globally to measure the efficiency of the Revenue Authorities and the compliance levels of the various tax jurisdictions. On that basis, it is important to uphold our country’s filing and paying taxes indices, which are pivotal in attracting meaningful investment to grow our economy.
BURS has therefore leveraged on technology to improve and simplify voluntary compliance and simplify the process of fulfilling doing business with us.
This initiative ensures wider outreach, inclusivity, and coverage, thereby reducing the burden on taxpayers to comply with their tax obligations.
“I would like to urge each and every one of us to make use of our e- services platform to file and pay online. We encourage you to file your returns through our e-services and Mtax App which are more convenient and efficient to both the taxpayers and BURS,” said Makgolo.
She said, “By so doing, we will minimize the queues for service at our offices as we embrace the National digitization strategy.”
In the drive towards adoption of e-services, the BURS has introduced self-services kiosks at its major service centers which provide an opportunity for those without access to computers to be trained on how to file online using BURS computers.
BURS has also introduced free wifi connectivity for taxpayers with computers to connect and file online.
In the next few months, BURS will be rolling out the wifi connectively to all its inland offices and ports of entry to ensure that taxpayers can access all e-services anytime and anywhere.
Taxpayers will no longer be limited to consuming BURS services during working hours but at their convenience.
