By: Staff Writer
January 01, Colombo (LNW): The Finance Ministry has decided to postpone the decision to open tax files for new vehicle registrations, new revenue licences, opening of new current accounts and property purchases from January1 2024 by about a month, Finance State Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said.
He noted that the decision was taken because most people have not opened their tax files yet.Therefore, the Ministry has decided to give a time of one month for those people to open their tax files, the Minister said.
“This registration is not difficult. Anyone can log on to the official Inland Revenue Department website and register themselves through the online system. All it takes is the National Identification Card (NIC) of the person to open an account,” he said.
“There is no intention that every registered person must pay taxes. If any person does not exceed his or her monthly income of Rs. 100,000, they are not entitled to the tax payments. We take the decision based on what is said by the tax file opener,” he said.
However, registering by opening a tax file is extremely valuable for a person, the Minister said.
After January, the tax file number will be made compulsory when purchasing new vehicles, obtaining new revenue licences, opening current accounts, and purchasing property, Minister Siyambalapitiya said.
With effect from January 01, 2024, any individual who is at the age 18 years or more, or who attains the age of 18 years on or after January 01, 2024, it is mandatory to register with the Inland Revenue Department and obtain a TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number).
Furthermore, any person who receives an income over Rs. 1,200,000/- for a year of assessment (from April 01 of a year to March 31 of the following year), shall register for the Income Tax.
Persons who do not obtain registration, as per above instructions, will be registered by the Inland Revenue Department and shall be subjected to a penalty not exceeding Rs. 50,000/-.
Sri Lanka’s 2024 budget has proposed several tough measures including prosecuting those who fail to file tax returns and making the submission of a copy of the Certificate of the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) mandatory for several transactions.
The moves come after the government failed to achieve its one million target on new tax files this year.
A special tax return requirement will be introduced for the deduction of 2.5% withholding tax levied on the sale price of any gem sold at an auction conducted by the National Gems and Jewellery Authority. Exemption under Inland Revenue Act will be allowed subject to such return information.
