Authority advises companies to submit returns

COMPANIES have been told to lodge annual returns on time to the Investment Promotion Authority to avoid paying extra fees.
Managing director Clarence Hoot said the fee to lodge an annual return was K300 if it was lodged over the counter or K250 online.
“It becomes an expensive exercise when you do not lodge your company’s annual returns on time and decide to do so after a while,” he said.
“If you miss a year of lodging your returns, you are liable of a fine of K1,000, this means that when you’re lodging your late returns manually, you will pay a total of K1,000 plus the normal lodgment fee of K300.
If you go online, it would be K1,000 plus K250.
“For example, say your last annual return was lodged in 2010 and you wish to lodge them manually this year.
“Technically speaking, you will be lodging returns for eight outstanding years. Therefore, your calculations will be K10,400 (K1,000 x 8 + K300 x 8).”
Hoot said companies could be deregistered if they did not file their annual returns as late as six months.
“If the company in the previously mentioned example is de-registered and wishes to apply for reinstatement then it will need to pay the K10,400 plus a K3,000 administrative fee,” he said.
“The total payable for reinstatement would therefore be K13,400. This excludes the costs of publishing the reinstatement notice in the media, which is a requirement of the reinstatement process.”
Hoot said the application fee for the reinstatement of removed default companies was K3,000 offline and K2,500 online.
“It’s better to spend money on things that will grow your business then paying fines for avoidable circumstances.”