FESBC NOT ENTIRELY PLEASED

MBABANE - The guidelines  have been issued in reaction to Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini’s statement announcing the E90 million relief fund for businesses with a turnover of up to E8 million.

As per the arrangement, Eswatini Revenue Authority (SRA) has issued clarity on the guidelines, especially the application process.
The relief will be in the form of a refund of company/business tax paid in the tax year 2019, which ended 30 June 2019. This shall be effected on a month-by-month basis at 25 per cent for each month completed under the government pronounced lockdown, limited to 100 per cent of the tax paid in tax year 2019. This means those taxpayers who declared losses or submitted no returns do not qualify.

Taxpayers who qualify for this intervention may apply to SRA for consideration under the COVID-19 tax relief.
According to the guidelines, the business (including sole traders) must have a turnover of E8 million or less, based on its 2019 submissions.

The taxpayer must have been compliant with all legal requirements under all tax types with regards to filing and payments. These include submission of returns for Income tax (all returns due up to December 2019), value added tax and pay as you earn (up to February 2020),
“Only late submissions with pre-approved filing extensions will be considered as on time,” reads the statement in part.

Other requirements include on time submission of excise returns. All these should have been submitted on time (on or before the due date).Taxpayers should be up to date with payments for all tax types. Only arrangements for debts emanating from audits will be considered on condition arrangements have been honoured as at April 1, 2020.

“Returns and payment compliance for VAT and PAYE should be up to a month before the Relief Request month, e.g. for April requests, the taxpayer’s compliance should be up to February 2020; May up to March 2020; and so forth.
“Those with Customs Compliance issues/debts will not qualify,” reads the statement from SRA Commissioner General Dumisani Masilela.

Taxpayer

The taxpayer seeking relief should have retained permanent employees  with at least half pay for the months claimed and must provide proof of same, such as a PAYE return indicating salaries paid and taxes deducted.
“Application for this relief shall be done through filling in the COVID-19 tax relief request form, which will be made available on the SRA website and submitting this form together with the supporting documentation to info@sra.org.sz.

The application requirement include correctly filling in the COVID-19 tax relief request form taxpayers should submit together with the request form, supporting evidence that demonstrate the effect of the COVID-19 situation on the business starting from April 2020 and subsequent months.
Payroll schedules for January 2020 and each month after that up to the date at which the application for relief is made (as evidence for retention and payment of employees is also a requirement.

Applications will be considered at the end of each completed calendar month with April 2020 being the first month. “All requests must be submitted by the seventh of the subsequent month, starting on May 7. Qualifying taxpayers will be paid/ refunded by the end of the month on which the request was received (provided the request was submitted on time and in full),” reads the statement,

submissions

No physical submissions will be accepted.
In reaction to the move, Federation of Eswatini Business Community (FESBC) Deputy President Hezekiel Mabuza appreciated the effort but said it would mainly benefit those who realised more profits in the past year.

He stated that those who were compliant but made less or no profit were still out in the cold even though they were hit by COVID-19. Mabuza said some companies ended up underperforming in the past year, as they were awaiting payment from government.

“We understand the situation is difficult, but government should come up with another form of relief, as it is the case in other countries. This relief is welcome but benefits businesses that performed well in the past year,” said Mabuza, who is also a businessman.
Mabuza said the number of businesses that need the relief was high and a lot of them were in distress due to the COVID-19.

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