Employers urged to submit tax returns

PHILLEPUS UUSIKU

Despite the looming deadline to submit individual income tax returns, many employers have not yet submitted their Employee Tax (ETX) returns as per the Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS) requirements on the ITAS portal.

The deadline for submitting the individual tax returns for the 2019/2020 tax year was extended three times and is now set for the 31st of this month.

According to the Ministry of Finance spokesperson Tonateni Shidhudhu, an individual income tax return declaration is validated against the information submitted by the employer, hence assessments for employees will not be completed when employers have not submitted all monthly returns.

Currently, there is a total of 611 117 individual taxpayers, and only 146 369 have registered on the portal thus far.

The delay is caused by employers who are not finalising their ETX templates to allow their employees to file individual returns correctly, he said.

“We therefore urge all employers to submit their monthly detailed ETX returns from March 2019 to February 2020 by uploading the designed Microsoft excel template or by capturing employees’ details information online.

Failure to submit will have a negative effect on the employees’ annual individual submissions. Employers should also ensure that PAYE 5 certificates are an exact reflection of their monthly ETX submissions for the tax year,” he said.

Coordination

He notes that they are assisting employers to validate the tax numbers of their employees and also register those without tax number. ITAS requires that every employee from whom tax has been deducted on the payroll of a particular employer should have a tax number.

“We are also urging employees to check with their respective salary offices if they have finalised the ETX templates before they submit their returns. If you submit before your employers, the system will not recognise the tax credit because there is no indication of the deductions from your employer, hence employers are urged to take this call very seriously,” he pointed out.

There are however employers including some government ministries that have already finalised their ETX and they are urged to file their returns online before the due date.

“Our officials have carried out training to various institutions on how to upload their ETX on the portal and our doors remains open for any employer who needs,” he concluded.