Last year government raked in a record $159 million from the General Sales Tax and in this year's budget government has projected to collect even more, $172 million from the GST. The good news is that it won't be by way of any hike in the GST rate, but rather through enforcing compliance. And to ensure that businesses comply, the General Sales Tax Department along with the Income Tax Department are training their auditors. It's a 6 week course for the 40 auditors and its being facilitated by Glen Schmidt who is a Canadian tax expert. Assistant General Sales Tax Commissioner Cynthia Castillo says it's all about enhancing the effectiveness of their auditors.
Cynthia Castillo, Assistant GST Commissioner
"Auditing is critical to any good tax administration. Through auditing we assess where our taxpayers are in terms of compliance; are they keeping proper books and records, are they complying with the applications of the GST legislation and so on."
Keith Swift,
Is there a problem with compliance?
Cynthia Castillo,
"We do have compliance issues. We have worked out our compliance issues in terms of non-filing. We are still having some issues in terms of books and records. Our approach is not a big stick approach, the training primarily is again to enhance the skills of our auditors. It is to promote professionalism. Our goal at the end of the day is for them to comply, to ensure that our taxpayers are compliant with the legislation and with the applications of the law."
Training will be conducted in three two-week modules. There are 22 auditors from the GST department and 18 auditors from the Income Tax Department participating.
