BUJUMBURA February 28th (ABP) – The Commissioner of Internal Taxes and Non-Tax Revenue at the Burundi Revenue Authority (OBR), Mr. Jean Berchmans Niyonzima, held a press conference on Tuesday to remind taxpayers that they must use the billing model in accordance with Law N ° 1/28 of December 31, 2017 on the general budget of the State for the fiscal year 2018.
Indeed, traders and other service providers are required to issue a billing in line with the model initiated by the tax authorities.
Any trader or service provider who makes a delivery without issuing a billing conforming to the model initiated by the tax administration is liable to a fine of 20% of the value of the goods or services delivered. In addition to the fine, taxable persons who do not invoice a transaction subject to VAT (Value Added Tax) are liable to a fine of 100% of the unbilled VAT.
According to Mr. Niyonzima, the billing model was distributed to the majority of traders during January 2018.
The OBR is conducting field trips to raise awareness on this point without forgetting to overcome the problem of underestimation of turnover by some taxpayers who cause a loss of revenue to the public treasury.
It is through those trips that the OBR informs taxpayers about the sanctions mentioned above, which will be inflicted on the recalcitrant.
The issuance of a bill has an advantage for the public treasury in that the taxes that come in are declared from the keeping of the accounts. So, it is better to record the day-to-day transactions, the speaker said. He added that citizens receiving the bill need to justify the transactions made with taxpayers and this creates good relations.
Indeed, taxpayers have the duty to issue a bill for each delivery and customers have the obligation to request this document.
As for the categories concerned by this standardized billing, he indicated that every person registered and who delivers a commodity has an obligation to conform to it.