Accounts of tax non-compliers to be frozen next month

Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) has said that the bank accounts of non-compliers of tax will be frozen from 1 October 2012.

Commissioner General of Taxation Yazeed Mohamed said today that the first accounts to be frozen would be those of non-compliers of GST, because they have taken this money from the public and failed to pay it to the government.

Under MIRA’s policy on checking and freezing bank accounts of tax non-compliers announced in August 2012, bank accounts of tax non-compliers will be frozen 50 days after they fail to make tax payments.

According to the policy, MIRA can freeze their bank accounts through Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA).

Yazeed said that the announcement of names of GST non-compliers resulted in several of them settling the payments, and expressed hope that the freezing of bank accounts will result in the same

.

He also explained that some tax non-compliers are very small businesses, and that MIRA has no information on their locations or types of business.

“No one can escape from paying tax. We will take the necessary action to obtain this money. As you know, about twenty of the cases filed to court ended in our favour. Some groups have failed to pay even after the court rulings. It’s a small group, that refuses to obey the laws,” he said.

The latest list publicised by MIRA indicates that 222 groups have failed to pay tax in Male’. This includes 51 groups which belong to the tourism sector. MIRA has also filed several cases to Police in relation to bounced cheques.