Second Amendment to the Tax Administration Act Ratified

The Second Amendment to the Tax Administration Act, passed in the 45th sitting of the 19th People’s Majlis has been ratified today by the President and published in the Government Gazette.

The legislative changes entered into force through this Amendment seeks to revamp the taxation system in a fair, transparent and efficient manner.

Some of the key amendments reflected in the procedural requirements of MIRA includes; enforcing a time limit of 2 years to conclude an audit and enforcing a statutory period of 120 days to make a decision on objections filed. This is believed to be a step towards procedural fairness because the time taken to make a determination on the aforesaid matters were alluded to be unacceptably lengthy and interminable in the past.

In addition to this, the amendment also eases the appeal process for taxpayers. Hereafter, to gain the right to appeal at the Tax Appeal Tribunal taxpayers are no longer required to pay all outstanding dues to the MIRA- rather, they can proceed with an appeal by settling 30% of the amount in dispute.

Furthermore, while the amendment limits the service period of the Commissioner General of Taxation and the Deputy Commissioner General of Taxation to 5 years with a term limit of 2 terms. The changes also require the existing Commissioner General and Deputy Commissioner General of Taxation to be replaced within 30 days from today.

Other significant changes are found in provisions related to administration of MIRA’s Board, powers of the Tax Appeal Tribunal, tax rulings and exchange of information. Full details are available from the link below:
Download

 

(Photo credits: Edition.mv)