The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is gravely concerned about a media report that appeared in the Sunday September 29 edition of Kaieteur News entitled “Only 17 lawyers in Guyana authorised to charge fees”.
The genesis of the report is a notice issued by the GRA which carried the names of the latest batch of professionals who were issued with tax practise certificates as recent as September 15.
The GRA finds the article very misleading and mischievous, to say the least, and believes that it was designed to cause confusion, particularly among those professionals who have complied with Section 39 of the Tax Act Chapter 80: 01, and are in possession of their Tax Practice Certificate.
Manipulative
The GRA is appalled at the manipulative use of its notice by the newspaper to contrive an inglorious article for its own ends.
GRA Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur penned an apology for the embarrassment caused by Kaieteur News abuse of press freedom, to the bitter end of having parts omitted and the remainder twisted to suit the aims of the paper.
The Kaieteur News, rather than taking responsibility for the humiliation it caused, sought to do more harm with its publication of a distorted apology.
The GRA is calling on the Kaieteur News to desist from these unethical practices.
Even more outrageous and erroneous is the contemptuous deduction by the Kaieteur News that because a particular professional’s name did not appear on the list, that person did not pay their tax.
While payment of tax and filing of returns are part of the criteria to obtain a Tax Practice Certificate, one should not make such an assumption, since persons must make an application; and there are a number of reasons why they may not do so.
Notwithstanding, it is an offence under Sub-Section 9 (a) of Section 39 of the Act, Chapter 80: 01 for any person to practice his profession privately for reward without a certificate of practice.
Persons were simply being given a warning not to be found in breach of the Act and encouraged to comply as those whose names were published.
Official Gazette
The commissioner general is required by the said Act to publish in the official Gazette on March 15 and July 1 of each year, a notice containing the names of all persons to whom certificates were issued for the year.
Additional names would be posted as soon as practicable thereafter.
The first publications of the list of professionals who were issued with tax practice certificates were done on March 16 and 23 in the official Gazette as required by law.
Professionals such as lawyers, doctors, dentists, physiotherapists, veterinary surgeons, engineers, accountants, auditors, surveyors, architects, pharmacists and optometrists (as set out in the First Schedule of the Tax Act, Chapter 80: 01) who are engaged in practice for reward, privately or independently of the state are required to have a tax practice certificate.
However, professional persons employed by the state and who do not in any way engage in private practise are exempt.
Hence, any person who practises as a professional in the course of being wholly employed in the service of another person whose undertaking or business does not comprise the rendering of services of the nature of such practise would not be required to have a certificate, for example, a medical doctor employed solely by a mining company, an accountant employed solely by an engineering firm or an attorney employed solely by an insurance firm.
