Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) is calling upon all commercial banks that wish to help their clients in paying taxes through their banks to post in their proposals for consideration. The move comes after RRA realized that almost all taxpayers declare and pay their taxes at the last minute which causes crowds and long queues at ECOBANK in Kimihurura, a bank contracted with RRA to receive taxes. Now RRA has agreed with Bank of Kigali to collect taxes on behalf of RRA from their clients. According to the Commissioner for Domestic Taxes, P. Célestin, Bumbakare, the partnership with banks will reduce on time wastage, long queues and improve on services offered to taxpayers. “We are ready to pattern with all banks to offer quick services to taxpayers,” he remarked. “We have asked interested banks to open up many branches in different areas for easy accessibility by taxpayers. This will ease doing business for both the tax administration and taxpayers and also increase on clientele to those banks that would have partnered with us,” he noted. Bumbakare also expressed that, “as we prepare for big deadlines of paying and declaring Value Added Tax (VAT), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), 3rd installments on profit tax as well as motor vehicle road license tax, we expect to re-enforce our staff on all front desk counters, and as well negotiate with ECOBANK and Bank of Kigali to reinforce their staff in order to deal with such big volumes of taxpayers.” It should be noted that the recent move to partner with Bank of Kigali in receiving payments from their clients did not actually cover motor vehicle road license tax (location plaque and impôt personnel) simply because the IT appliances used by RRA cannot be used by the bank in question. It however covers other taxes like Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Value Added Tax (VAT), and incomes Profit tax. To facilitate taxpayers outside Kigali City the Commissioner highlighted that with effect from March 1st 2009, districts of Rubavu, Ngoma, Musanze, Huye and Rusizi started issuing stickers with immediate payment for road license tax. “This is a new system to most provincial taxpayers that will facilitate them in reducing time spent while visiting the tax administration. We therefore request all taxpayers in these areas to exploit the opportunity”, he added. Ends
