The Mauritius Revenue Authority is expecting to receive Rs4.1 billion in income tax this year, which is more or less the same as the amount collected for the last financial year.
It will add to the Rs8.7 billion expected from corporate tax, an estimate which is less than the Rs10.3 billion collected last year. Tax returns forms have already been sent out according to the Director General of the MRA, Mr Sudhamo Lal.
Taxpayers will have until April 5 to submit their returns and, exceptionally this year, they will be able to use the help desks for four days: on March 27 and 28 and April 3 and 4. Taxpayers using those help desks will be able to file their returns and make payments electronically.
According to the tax boss, the increased use of e-filing will enable refunds to taxpayers to be effected more quickly. Last year, the MRA was able to refund e-filers within seven days of submission of returns. The MRA has already opened its e-filing facilities.
The tax period will exceptionally cover only the six months spanning July to December 2009 due to the government’s decision to reschedule its accounting year to match the calendar year.
Taxpayers choosing the e-filing facilities will automatically enter a lottery draw and stand a chance of winning the top prize of Rs50,000.
There are in all 20 prizes for e-filers. “We have sent an email to some 30,000 taxpayers who filed their returns electronically asking them to do so again this year. And if for any reason those people need to file a paper return, then they can always do so by downloading it from the website,” said Mr Lal.
The MRA has chosen this year not to send any income tax form to the people using e-filing because this enables the organisation to save money. Each income tax form costs as much as Rs20.
Added to this is the additional staffing cost required for data entry, as paper returns still require the information to be entered on the IT system. “We have also sent a personal letter to 35,000 people earning over Rs350,000 a year.
These people tend to be educated and belong to the upper middle-class. What we are asking them, is to file their returns electronically as this would save them time and hassle,” said Mr Lal.
The taxman is trying to get 40%-45 % of taxpayers to use the electronic filing system, which would put the country’s revenue authority among the leaders on the global scale.
Comparatively, Australia currently boasts a rate of 90% of tax returns filed electronically but then, says Mr Lal, they started 15 years ago and Mauritius is still in its second year of implementation.
Moreover, the director general says that he is writing to all employers with over 50 employees on their payroll to provide facilities to their employees for e-filing their tax returns.