New tax deadline for civil servants

CIVIL servants have until the end of the month to submit their individual tax returns for 2003-04.

Thousands of civil servants failed to meet the national deadline at the end of June because ministries were unable to produce Pay-As-You-Earn forms (a pre-requisite attachment to the tax submission) as a result of poor accounting and personnel systems. Approached for comment, Deputy Minister of Finance Clara Bohitile told The Namibian that all ministries had printed accurate PAYE certificates for their employees by October 15, and many had already distributed them.Initially the Finance Ministry had set August 31 as the deadline for ministries to get their house in order, but some big ministries such as Basic Education were two years behind in issuing certificates.As a result, some civil servants will now have to submit backdated returns for past financial years.The Finance Ministry said it was not to blame for the backlogs and that the fault lay with individual ministries that failed to keep accurate personnel files for the Government’s more than 80 000 employees.Over the past two months, dummy PAYEs have been printed to ensure that the information presented on them is accurate.Individuals who submitted their tax returns by the June 30 deadline have already received their assessments.Approached for comment, Deputy Minister of Finance Clara Bohitile told The Namibian that all ministries had printed accurate PAYE certificates for their employees by October 15, and many had already distributed them.Initially the Finance Ministry had set August 31 as the deadline for ministries to get their house in order, but some big ministries such as Basic Education were two years behind in issuing certificates.As a result, some civil servants will now have to submit backdated returns for past financial years.The Finance Ministry said it was not to blame for the backlogs and that the fault lay with individual ministries that failed to keep accurate personnel files for the Government’s more than 80 000 employees.Over the past two months, dummy PAYEs have been printed to ensure that the information presented on them is accurate.Individuals who submitted their tax returns by the June 30 deadline have already received their assessments.