04th July 2023
Own correspondent
The Botswana Unified Revenue Service(BURS) today revealed that the 1 st of July was the beginning of a new tax year, and opened the filing season that runs from the 1 st July to the 30 th September.
“We are therefore here today, to make a call for all individual taxpayers to submit their returns for the tax year 1 st July 2022 to 30 th June 2023, declaring their tax obligations/affairs for the year ended 30 th June 2023. Through this exercise, both the taxpayer and the Revenue Service can ascertain the true amount of tax remitted to the Revenue Service by the taxpayer, and thus contributing their fair share to national development,” said Ms. Jeannette Makgolo, Botswana Unified Revenue Service(BURS) Commissioner General.
She said, “It is of utmost importance that filing of returns and payment of taxes are done on time and in compliance with relevant statutes. 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. In other words, it is merely a means through which every taxpayer proudly declares that they have indeed played their part in financing the development of their country.”
BURS officials say 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 over the years been working hard in its efforts to improve and simplify the process of submitting tax returns. Since 2015, we introduced electronic filing in a bid to reduce queues for submission of manual returns at our offices. This development ensured wider outreach, inclusivity, and coverage, thereby reducing the burden on taxpayers to comply with their tax obligations.
All individuals with a gross income more than P480 000 per annum are 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:
- arises solely from employment,
- is from a single employer, and
- deducted by the employer as Pay As You Earn (PAYE)
It is important to note that individuals with multiple sources of income; (which includes employment income) are required to file returns even if their total gross income is less than P480 000 per annum.
“This filing dispensation does not affect the requirement to register for income tax by all those whose income exceeds the threshold of P48 000 per annum,” said Makgolo.
Tax officials took the opportunity to remind employers to submit tax returns of the amounts deducted from their employees for the tax year ended 30 th June 2023, by 31 st July 2023.
As earlier indicated, I would like to urge each and every one of us to make use of our e-services platform to file and pay online. By so doing, we will minimize the queues for service at our offices as we embrace the national digitization strategy.
According to officials BURS was able to collect tax revenue amounting to P49.738 billion, surpassing the set target of P47.572 billion by P2.166 billion or 4.55%. This is despite the government having increased its target by P1.139 billion two months before the end of the financial year, from the initial P46.433 billion to P 47.572 billion.
“For the financial year 2023/24 the BURS has been assigned to collect tax revenue amounting to P60.494 billion, hence we urge all taxpayers to continue fulfilling their obligation to ensure we collect this targeted revenue which is much needed for the development of the country,” said Makgolo.
