Seychelles Revenue Commission |16 March 2020

Mrs Fanchette actively addressing the crowd of participants on the lodgment programme

SRC holds first tax agents and accountants forum for 2020

The Seychelles Revenue Commission (SRC) on Friday met a group of tax agents and accountants, along with representatives from the Ministry of Finance, Trade, Investment and Economic Planning and from the Financial Services Authority, for a half-day taxation forum.

The event, held at the Seychelles International Conference Centre, is one of two forums that the SRC plans to organise for tax agents and accountants as part of its annual calendar of events.

Friday’s event saw the participation of 28 registered tax agents and accountants as well as some of SRC’s key staff who are recurrently dealing with cases or enquiries related to the tax agents and accountants or those of their clients.

The general aim of organising such an event was to offer SRC and tax agents and accountants alike with a communication platform whereby both parties could meet and use the opportunity to address some areas of concern specific to the tax division.

For the forum, the tax agents and accountants were introduced to the Commissioner General of SRC, Veronique Herminie, after which they got an insight into the vast challenges faced daily by the SRC and the changes being made to address these.

Topics on the agenda for the half-day event included providing the participants with an update on:

• The Tax Agents Lodgment Programme;
• Repeal of the 4th Schedule of PAYG Specified Business (DAS Booklet);
• Amendment to the Tax Rate for Business Tax Residential;
• The ongoing issue of Outstanding Returns;
• The monthly requirement to submit payroll; and
• The process for filing of multiple tax returns by businesses conducting multiple activities.

Aside from these main topics, other hot topics covered by SRC in the event included;

• SRC’s new telephone hotline of 2824747, which is to be used by members of the general public for reporting suspected fraudulent tax and customs activities. (*This telephone line is open to the public from 8am to 4pm, Monday through to Friday (local time)).
• SRC’s new International Tax Unit; a new unit that has been formed and is responsible for overseeing the Implementation and monitoring of the BEPS actions and ensuring the effective implementation of the tax transparency standards for exchange of tax information such as EOIR and AEOI.

Other interesting topics of discussion that were briefly followed through included firstly the Immovable Property Tax, update on the Business Tax Reform, and lastly on registration of IBC’s for Taxpayer Identification Number.

During the forum, several of the participants had the opportunity to raise their points of concern. Each, were well received by the group of SRC presenters which comprise the SRC’s assistant commissioner of Taxes, Marie-France Fanchette; the deputy Commissioner General of SRC, Fred Morel; and other presenters from SRC originating from its Taxpayer Services Section, Audit Section, Legal Section, International Tax Unit and from its Corporate Planning & Policy Unit.

Towards the end of the forum, the Commissioner General thanked all the participants for actively engaging in the event and encouraged each and every one of them to join the SRC’s Outreach Programme. This is an educational programme tailored to meet the tax and customs needs of interested business candidates – an initiative, which was well appreciated by the group of tax agents and accountants present.

Another well-appreciated news that was communicated at the event is that SRC is planning for the development of a new Client Managements System (CMS) with the support funding from the EU. Some experts working on that project are already in the country and have started discussion with SRC and the Ministry of Finance.

The Commissioner General further explained that,“with this much-anticipated redevelopment of the CMS, tax agents and accountants alike ought to expect and receive more precise notifications of their tax debts and limited tax errors due to the existing CMS,” which will optimistically lead to a better client experience.

Contributed by the Seychelles Revenue Commission