Consultants pay taxes: Koim

By CLARISSA MOI
THE Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) commissioner general Sam Koim says there is a tax for consultants who come into the country either on short or long term contracts.
He was responding to concerns raised by Gulf Governor Chris Haiveta in Port Moresby on Friday for the commission to pay closer attention on consultants that came into the country to perform specialist work.
Haiveta asked the IRC to look into those people and to find out whether they had tax identification numbers (TIN) and whether they were being paid at the head office or not.
“There’s a tax for consultants that are here, who are on short term or long term contract,” Koim said.
“The concern that we have and something that is being abused by these multinationals is that there are people who they (businesses) bring in and are performing inline positions.
“But they are getting them on short term contracts and they pay just 15 per cent of the tax and get away. So that’s the area of concern.
“There’s a lot of people who are making big money in this country but they are coming in as consultants instead of being employees.
“And a lot of top executives in firms are on that kind of arrangements.
“That’s why we have signed agreements with the Immigration and Citizenship Authority so we are zooming in on who is coming in and work permits to make sure that those people who are also filling inline positions will also be subjected to the normal tax.
“If you want to get employed here, you need to be subjected to the normal tax that every other employee is facing and racing issues every now and then that they are paying too much tax.”