Since the creation of its Large Taxpayers Division (LTD) in 2017, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has seen an increase in the filing, reporting, and payment compliance of 244 companies. Correspondingly, the division has seen an increase in revenue collection, significant recoveries from audits, and has successfully managed to reduce its stock of debt.
With respect to recoveries, Guyana Standard was reliably informed that audits were conducted by GRA on several companies in the large taxpayers’ bracket between 2017 and 2020. The agency was able to close an average of 41 cases per annum. This news agency understands that revenue recovered from those audits totaled $4.6b in 2017, $26.9b in 2018, $8.2b in 2019, and $3.2b (Jan-May 2020). The total for the four years amounts to $42.9 billion.
It was further pointed out to this news agency that after a file clearing exercise was conducted in 2018, the LTD created a database to monitor collections for the 244 large taxpayers it oversees in real-time. The debt is monitored according to three specific criteria: current, stock of debt (past), and additional (as a result of audits). Due to strict monitoring, the division was able to recover approximately $500M in debt for the last three years. GRA was keen to note that this is just a small part of what the division has been able to accomplish since its creation in 2017.
It should be noted that the LTD was created as part of GRA’s Tax Reform Strategy with technical assistance from International Monetary Fund-Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (IMF- CARTAC).
The criterion for a large taxpayer is: all approved insurance companies, all banking institutions, all telecommunications companies, oil and gas companies, and companies with a turnover exceeding $1b.
In Guyana, large taxpayers account for approximately 60% of the total revenue collection.
