BLACK MARKET CRACKDOWN

By Linda Straker

Acting Comptroller of the Inland Revenue Division (IRD), Dr. Raphael Stephen, said that there is a thriving black market economy, which is depriving Government of much-needed revenue and his department will be stepping up efforts to crack down on the practice.

Stephen, who was appointed to the position effective June 19, 2013, said that a common trend among those black market traders is not issuing receipts, which is a violation of the tax law.

“Two things in particular that traders should know is that a receipt must be issued whenever there is a transaction and businesses need to reg-ister with the tax office. When businesses failed to register, they are cheating the Government of revenue,” he said.

Speaking on a weekly television programme, Dr. Stephen said there are fixed penalties that officers at the IRD can issue whenever a trader is found violating the law.

“I must tell you that recently we identified a number of traders who were violating and these businesses were charged between $500 and $5 000,” he said.

Dr. Stephen, who is qualified in Public Finance as a Fiscal Scientist and has been in the Government service for 31 years, said that these businesses did not challenge the tax officers as they are fully aware about the violation as written within the law.

“They don’t challenge it; in one instance where a trader was charged $5 000  he paid immediately,” he said, while pointing out that tax officers also issued warnings to several other businesses for failure to comply with the tax laws.

Public Relations Officer of the division, Chinnelle Andrews, said that issuing of receipts is a major problem and called on customers to demand their receipts and/or contact the IRD when traders failed to provide them with a record of the transaction.

“We want the public to call in and let us know when traders violate the law, because the law provides and makes it mandatory for receipts to be issued by all companies who are registered,” she said.

A recent review of the Value Added Tax system, which came into effect in February 2010, called for enforcing clauses relating to garnishing and seizures for those who failed to comply with the VAT law, and establishing a policy of management reporting on compliance performance.

Conducted by the Audit Department in the Ministry of Finance, one recommendation is that a comprehensive education process be undertaken to provide officers who originally were not part of the VAT process with knowledge of the requirements of the VAT legislation and the existing policies and procedures.