TRA up for new law to have DJs and MCs pay VAT

Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA)

Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) sees new proposed legislation that would requires commercial house owners, masters of ceremonies (MC’s), disco jokers (DJ’s), caterers and other groups to pay their Value Added Tax (VAT) would massively compliment to the nation’s income.

 

Speaking with The Guardian the Acting Manager (Education) TRA, Jeremia Mbagi said previously, such groups of entrepreneurs were exempted from VAT.

 

“With this proposal TRA believes that at least 12.3trn/- will be at the end of the 2015/2016 fiscal year,” he said.

 

According to him, the proposal will be tabled in Parliament later this year for deliberations that will require those operating social halls, which will also include Masters of Ceremonies (MC’s ), Disco jokers (DJ’s), caterers and other groups to pay VAT.“TRA has zero tolerance against tax evaders, there is a lot of political will with President Magufuli’s position on revenue collection,” Mbagi said while warning evaders that TRA would leave no stone unturned in ensuring that Treasury coffers were stuffed.

 

 Last year, TRA collected slightly over 3.18trn/- during the same quarter with the highest collection in October when 816.6bn/- was realized compared to 970.4bn/- collected in October, this year.

 

He said apart from sealing loopholes of tax evaders including those who deliberately use the law to delay or refuse to pay requisite taxes, TRA board of directors, agreed to walk the talk in fulfilling President Magufuli’s slogan of ‘Hapa Kazi tu’ which casually means ’Time to get down to work.’ 

 

He urged the public to demand receipts when buying as well as capturing images of corrupt officials with their mobile phones. 

The TRA official said: “Let the public help us by demanding receipts whenever you buy a product or pay for a service, if you encounter TRA corrupt officials or any other government agency, film them and put it online.”

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN