Tax Arrears Incentive Programme
31 January 2017
In a press release on 27 January 2017, the Minister of Finance announced an Incentive Program for payment of outstanding taxes. All Namibian taxes are included in the reprieve provided by the program.
In essence, the incentive requires qualifying taxpayers to pay the full outstanding tax (capital) amount, plus 20% of accrued interest, whereafter Inland Revenue will write off the remaining 80% interest and all additional tax (penalties).
The program commences on 1 February 2017 and ends on 31 July 2017.
To qualify, all outstanding returns must be submitted (in order to determine the tax amount due), the application form must be submitted and the payment made.
Taxpayers who have not previously registered as taxpayers, have not submitted returns, or submitted incorrect returns (and did not declare income for tax), which were due prior to 1 February 2017, may utilise this once – off opportunity to regularize their tax affairs. No punitive measures will be taken by Inland Revenue against those who wilfully failed to declare, or under-declared their income.
After the end of this program, such taxpayers who did not utilise this opportunity to provide a full and frank disclosure of their income will receive no mercy from Inland Revenue and we expect the criminal offence provisions in the various Revenue Acts to be utilised aggressively.
Practically, we hope that Inland Revenue has capacity to assess all the returns which are expected to be submitted during the grace period, timeously, to allow participating taxpayers to pay the correct assessed tax amount before the expiry date.