The Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) and the Private Sector Federation have agreed to jointly deal with issues affecting businesses in a bid to ease trade and increase investment in the country.

This was announced Thursday during the tax body’s quarterly meeting dubbed "Tax Issues Forum” that was attended by members of the private sector.

Richard Tusabe, the RRA Commissioner General, said the tax body will work hard to address tax issues affecting businesses so that entrepreneurs can operate without any hindrance.

"We are committed to resolving issues affecting the business community as we try to meet our revenue targets,” Tusabe noted.

On his part, the PSF chief executive officer, Hannington Namara, said the federation would increase its engagement with all sectors to identify and resolve all issues affecting businesses. 

Some of the issues affecting businesses include limited knowledge about tax information, non-tax compliance, non-issuance of tax receipts, undervaluation and lack of capacity in tax planning. This has resulted in some traders incur ring heavy penalties for failure to meet tax obligations, the meeting was told.

Businesses also expressed concern over some unregistered practitioners in the construction sector, including some quarry operators and brick-makers, "who do not issue invoices to clients because they are not registered by the tax administration, thus affecting the industry”.

Traders also said some miners and hotel operators are not registered.  

Raw materials and services bought from unregistered vendors and suppliers attract a withholding tax of 15 per cent but buyers can only avoid this by using the services of registered suppliers and vendors, Tusabe said. 

He explained that there was an ongoing campaign to educate and register all businesses in the cited sectors, adding that most of the other entities were complying with the requirement. 

They also agreed to jointly sensitise taxpayers on the use of electronic billing machines, use of e-payment, and implementation of the single customs territory along the Northern and Central corridors so that Rwandan traders can benefit from these initiatives.