16th June 2022
Own Correspondent
The Botswana Unified Revenue Service(BURS) has revealed that the tax amnesty extended to 30th June 2022 enabling tax payers to benefit from a reprieve from penalties will not be renewed.
Officials have therefore encouraged Batswana to resolve their issues with BURS before deadline.
“As at 31st May 2022, a total of 13,193 taxpayers(being 58% of the taxpayers in arrears) had applied for Tax Amnesty out of which 7,927(being 35%) out of 22,839 taxpayers in arrears were approved,” said Jeanette Makgolo, Botswana Unified Revenue Service(BURS) Commissioner General.
She said, “Total principal tax paid for the period stood at P682million comprising of Income Tax of P229 million and Value Added Tax of P453 million. This depicts 27% decrease in the outstanding principal tax prior to the commencement of the scheme.”
According to officials P408 million in penalties and interests have been waived thus far comprising of P249 million Income Tax and P159 million of Value Added Tax. This depicts 9.5% decrease of the outstanding penalties and interest prior to commence of the scheme.
Reconciliation and adjustments of accounts to enable processing of tax amnesty waivers is also at an advanced stage, with 99% of tax return backlogs resolved and 92% of adjustments processed as at the end of May 2022. With the extension of the Tax Amnesty from December 2021 Tax Amnesty applications approved increased by 77% from 4,109 to 7,927.
The total principle tax increased from paltry P64 million to P682 million during the tax extension window period and interest and penalties waived increased from P116 to P408 million.
There was also a significant 27% decrease in the outstanding principal tax and 9.5% decrease in the outstanding interests and penalties prior to the commencement of the scheme.
“Prior to the commencement of the Tax Amnesty Scheme the total Income Tax and Value Added Tax arrears stood at P6.8 billion comprising of principal tax of P2,5 billion and P4,296 million in interests and penalties; interest of P3,5billion and penalties of P796million,” said Makgolo.
The Minister of Finance and Economic Development in the Budget speech of 1st February 2021 proposed a Tax Amnesty Scheme for Income Tax and Value Added Tax. The objective of the Tax Amnesty Scheme was to ease the burden on taxpayers with outstanding tax liabilities, by granting them an opportunity to clear the total Principal tax owed in exchange for write off of Interest and Penalties charged during tax periods prior to 1st July 2021. The Scheme commenced on the 1st July 2021.
