Govt to do business with tax compliant firms

INTERNAL Revenue Commission (IRC) commissioner-general Sam Koim says only tax compliant companies should receive business from the Government.
Koim said this during the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the IRC and the National Procurement Commission (NPC) on Friday.
He said there were a lot of non-compliant businesses that were getting large contracts from the Government.
Koim said the state took on major risks when awarding contracts to non-compliant businesses.
“The IRC collects 80 per cent of government revenue,” he said.
“We believe that for most of the development projects, the Government uses the taxpayer’s money which goes to the NPC, the PIP (public investment programme) funding. This strategic partnership is critical for both of us (IRC and NPC) as the gateways of collection and of spending.
“If we can have that relationship and look at both ways then it can really help us protect the interest of our people so far as public money is concerned and so they can also get the value for money.
“One of the things that we have been working on is for tax compliant businesses to be getting business from government.
“At the end of the day, those businesses who are actually getting business from government are getting it from tax payer money.
“So they have a reciprocal obligation to ensure that when it comes to paying taxes, they keep their side of the bargain.
“That’s the thing that we are looking forward to and ultimately see that reflected and the NPC plays that critical role to make sure that happens and I believe this partnership will go a long way to ensure compliant businesses get government contracts.
“We would like to stress that those businesses not only have a TIN (taxpayer identification number) but also a certificate of compliance.
“There are a lot of businesses out there that are not tax compliant but are given huge government contracts.
“When we take enforcement actions against them, when we garnish their accounts, the projects completely comes to a standstill.
“At the end of the day, it’s their responsibility to be compliant, the government’s takes on big risks when it contracts non-compliant businesses.”