The Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) has expressed concern over companies in the Khomas region that are contributing fewer taxes to the fiscus compared to individuals.
“When you look at that number, whereby individual taxpayers contribute about 49% in Khomas with corporates only contributing about 11%, the question we need to ask ourselves is something right there?” said Sam Shivute, the national tax collector’s Commissioner and CEO on Tuesday during a stakeholder engagement session.
Speaking at the same occasion, NamRA Head of Domestic Taxes Idi Itope said the agency is owed over N$5.6 billion in the Khomas region, excluding penalties and interest.
“This is astronomical and the amount skyrocketed over the last few years thus the agency recently modified their tax relief. This amount is not only attributed to Covid-19 itself as the amount stemmed from before the pandemic,” he said.
In terms of revenue for the financial year ended March 2022, the Khomas and Omahake region brought in N$11 billion and with all other regions combined coming in at N$23 billion,
Itope said individuals alone, “who need to submit a tax form at the end of June, contributed 49%, businesses contributed 36% and with corporates coming in last with 11%.”
The national tax collector paid out almost N$7 billion in refunds, 68% to vendors, 27% to individuals and 5% to corporate.
“Sometimes other taxpayers have various activities that result in them having paid more than they ought to have paid thus after verifying the refunds. N$ 1.1 billion was paid out to the Khomas region, with the total refund for all regions being N$6.5 billion,” Itope said.
Meanwhile, Shivute said Namibia has a 52% tax compliance rate, with 48% possible tax payers not compliant.
He added that NamRA has devised a strategy, which has already been approved, to ensure the implementation of optimising revenue collection.
“No one is condoned. For those who decide not to comply with the tax law it will not be business as usual. There will be consequences,” he warned.
