Tax payers should comply with tax laws in order to minimize incurring heavy tax penalties, according to Herbert Gatsinzi Director of Tax Advisory Services at Ernest & Young.

In an exclusive interview ahead of the second national workshop for taxpayers, Gatsinzi said that he is always saddened by some one taking a bank loan to pay tax penalties.

The national taxpayers’ workshop slated for November 24-25, 2009 follows the one that was conducted in 2007.

According to Gatsinzi, after the first workshop auditing firms started receiving many inquiries on taxation and the  implications of non compliancy on certain transaction.

"The 2007 workshop came after the country had introduced a new tax regime to align with East African Community (EAC) from the old system which was not on the level of development and being a new system it involved severe penalties,” Gatsinzi said.

The audit firm has identified areas of interest from different clients that will be tackled in the next week’s workshop all directed and focused on taxation matters.

Major stakeholders include; multinational businesses which are interested in international operations being carried out in the most complaint and tax efficient way for Rwandan purposes. NGO’s are also interested in how to ensure that their employees pay the right taxes depending on the duration in country. 

Rwanda corporate companies are interested on how to come up with corporate tax computation that ensures tax advantages like tax relief including capital allowance, investment allowance and tax discounts.

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