The Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) will refund over N$118 million in tax relief payments to eligible annuitants, including pensioners, spousal beneficiaries, and child beneficiaries, on 28 November 2024.
GIPF Chief Executive Officer/Principal Officer Martin Inkumbi said that the Fund will disburse approximately N$118 million to 24,173 qualifying annuitants, with refund amounts ranging from as little as N$1.00 to approximately N$17,000.
“The refunds are based on a calculation formula that considers the tax paid to date by members, the amount that would have been payable by the member under the new tax tables, and the difference between these two figures, resulting in the refund amounts,” Inkumbi said on Thursday.
Refunds will be paid to all qualifying tax-paying annuitants who do not have active tax directives or a notice to an agent issued by the Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA). Refunds for deceased members will be paid to their estates through the Master of the High Court.
“Approximately 946 annuitants who owe tax to NamRA will not receive a refund. In such cases, these individuals are advised to contact NamRA to provide a new tax directive to the Fund, instructing either the cancellation or amendment of the existing tax directive,” Inkumbi said.
Additionally, GIPF is verifying outstanding tax refunds for members on disability who received a 3% increase and back pay adjustments earlier this year. Any adjustments for this group of annuitants will be processed with the December 2024 payroll.
This move by the GIPF follows the Namibian government’s decision to amend the income tax threshold for individuals, raising it from N$50,000 to N$100,000.
The government’s revised tax reforms, effective from 1 March 2024, are expected to return N$646 million to taxpayers by exempting all individual taxpayers from paying tax on the first N$100,000 of their income. These changes align with the Income Tax Amendment Act, 2024, as published in Government Gazette (No. 8442).
