The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) says professionals have until Monday to remit the new 10% and 5% charge on services for the month of September.

From the first of last month, new tax provisions brought about by the Fiscal Enactments (Amendments) Act of 2003, came into effect.

A GRA notice in the press stated that all accountants, auditors, legal practitioners, engineers, architects, veterinary surgeons and real estate agents (Category ‘A’ of professionals) have to charge the public a tax on services at the rate of 10% on the gross sum paid in respect to services provided.

Category ‘B’ of professionals includes optometrists, medical practitioners, dentists, physiotherapists and pharmacists. They have to charge a service tax of 5%.

Additionally, the tax is to be applied to services provided by a hotel subject to the Hotel Accommodation Tax Act of 1993, except for gambling activities, at the rate of 10%, according to the GRA.

Failure to make the appropriate remittance at the time specified in the law will result in the penalties for which a waiver may not be considered unless persons show ‘good cause’.

The GRA says that the professionals required to levy this tax should maintain all bills to show the tax payable and the appropriate rate of tax charged. A duplicate of every bill and the receipt thereof shall be kept by every professional which should be available at all times and produced for inspection on the Commissioner’s demand.

One real estate agent from Mentore Singh Realty told Stabroek News yesterday that the GRA did not have the forms for the submission of the new charges to the GRA.

But according to the advertisement, persons can pick up the remittance form from the Registry of the Internal Revenue Department (IRD), GPO Building, or any of the branch offices. “Every person upon making payment of the tax shall furnish the Commissioner, Internal Revenue, with the appropriate remittance form (Form 2S) signed by him, showing the relevant particulars of the total amount of tax levied in the course of business for the month.”

The real estate agent added that he had done some business in September and said that the service tax was an additional burden.

“Since the 10% has come into effect, I have not done any business,” one woman said, making the point that she did not have anything to pay to the GRA. She added that she was totally against the new fees and said the yearly fee for the certificate had increased from $5,000 to $25,000 per year.

The GRA defined real estate agents as being “persons engaged in the business of brokering real property for land sale or leases in exchange for commission, or arranging for the matching of buyer and seller or lesser and lessee in a commercial transaction involving real property.”

Commissioner-General of the GRA, Khursid Sattaur, declined to comment on the matter when Stabroek News contacted him yesterday.

Questions have been raised over whether all of the professionals listed into the schedule to the Act are charging the required fees and whether the GRA is in a position to ascertain this. Sources point out that there would have to be detailed checking of records and investigations to determine whether some professionals were simply not charging the fee in a bid to attract clients from those who were.

Another concern is how the GRA would ensure that the taxes collected by professionals are remitted to the state in their entirety.