The Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) has revealed that the amount involved in a tax fraud scam announced in March has increased to N$36 million from N$15 million previously announced, with 409 tax payers from 17 institutions having currently been identified as beneficiaries of the proceeds.
The revenue body said it expects the amount to increase further as investigations continue, targeting 4746 taxpayers.
“This group of taxpayers remains the subject of continuing investigation, which in some instances have been concluded and criminal cases have been lodged with the Namibian Police. As an immediate intervention, NamRA will invoke section 91 of the of the Income Tax Act of 1981 to recover the paid refunds where the facts show no basis for such claims, appointing financial institutions and employers as agents to collect such amounts,” NamRA CEO and Commissioner, Sam Shivute said.
He,however, announced that NamRA had lifted a three-month moratorium on tax refunds for provisional taxpayers, which had been imposed to ascertain the extent of the fraudulent claims.
“NamRA hereby announces the lifting of the moratorium in relation to refund claims from provisional taxpayers who are not part of the target group and hence such claims will be processed from Friday.No tax directives will be issued for taxpayers in the target group while the investigation continues,” Shivute said.
“Our records indicate that by 28 February 2022, 43 166 natural persons were registered as provisional taxpayers, being a person deriving any amount as income which does not constitute remuneration. From March 2018 to February 2022, only 6268 of these taxpayers claimed and received tax refunds for the different types of taxes, being more than N$950 million.”
The NamRA probe comes as the revenue body has fingered companies in the fishing sector as well as other multinationals – top foreign currency earners – for using a number of scams to avoid paying the correct amount of taxes to the government.
According to NamRA, Namibia has a 52% tax compliance rate, with 48% possible tax payers not compliant.
