Tax changes reflect rising cost of doing business in PNG

Business, Normal
Source:

The National, Wednesday July 18th, 2012

A NUMBER of amendments made to the existing tax law across the country reflects the rising cost of doing business in Papua New Guinea, according to a senior tax and legal services manager of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Paul Previtera.
He said this at a tax updates and development workshop organised by the Certified Practicing Accountants (CPA) PNG at the Holiday Inn yesterday.
“Economic developments are frequently taking place across the country with few amendments done to the existing tax law.
“It is important to educate the finance professionals across the country about the latest developments in PNG tax law.
According to the paper that was presented yesterday, no change was made to the general corporate income tax rates, which is 30% for residents and 48% for non- residents.
“Only one change made to personal tax rates was to increase the tax free threshold for resident taxpayers to K10,000 with effect from July 1, 2012.”
Previtera, who provides taxation advisory and compliance services to a wide range of PNG and international clients, said it is important for both employers and their employees to be aware of the different tax rates.
“HR managers or chief financial officers of different industries also need to be aware of the different rate of taxes and issues of their employees,” he said.
 “Some of these amendments made include the Pacific Games, abolition of manufacturing export exemption, property unit trusts, rural banking services, taxation of resource projects, GST, customs and excise, and administrative.
It was stressed that out of these amendments, three were introduced to support the 2015 Pacific Games.