Bizimana Pascal Ruganintwari, RRA Commissioner General
You are late paying your taxes, and now you want to bring your tax status up to date, but you are worried that you are going to be penalised for the tax arrears. Well, worry no more, for now at least.
As part of its ongoing tax reforms, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN), will, as an insentive, allow tax payers to pay their tax arrears, without incurring a penalty of any kind. And if you have accumulated a debt that you may unable to pay all at once, you will have the chance of paying in installments.
For businesses which have to import foreign services, provided the tax authorities are satisfied that after a tendering process, such services are not available domestically, the VAT (Value Added Tax) on those imports maybe waived.
And there are incentives for customers to encourage the payment of VAT. Any customer who asks for the proper bill for their purchases, can claim ten percent of the VAT payable on that purchase. And if the business refuses or fails to give you a bill, and you report the transaction, you can claim five percent, when that business pays its VAT.
The waiving of penalties for late payments is at the discretion of MINECOFIN, and will continue for as long or short a period that they judge necessary.
For businesses as for consumers, MINECOFIN aims to emphasise providing a service to help the tax payer, rather than punitive action.
The reforms are also part of aligning Rwanda’s tax system to international standards, and increasing transparency. The country is now part of the Global Forum’s Transparency and Exchange of Information on Request, or EOIR standard.
The system allows all members countries to share tax information, so that their respective tax payers can move easily within tax jurisdictions. Rwanda is now part of 133 countries, with bilateral agreements with a further thirteen in process.
