On 13 January 2021, the Government published a new voluntary tax compliance audit program for taxpayers to use in addressing and correcting their mistakes while at the same time, allowing the tax authorities to improve the efficiency of tax audits. The new program explained the step by step audit process, which are presented below:
Tax compliance audit will be available to all companies, regardless of their business activities or size. The audit is conducted by private-sector actors; such as tax lawyers, statutory auditors, chartered accountants, etc. The scope of tax compliance audits will be limited to ten key factors regarding the accounting treatments, such as conformity and quality of the electronic accounting files, cash-register software, archiving requirements, corporate income tax and VAT regimes, amortization rules, accrued liabilities, tax deductibility of certain exceptional charges, and VAT payment rules. Note that, these tax compliance audits do not cover the complex transactions or certain specific tax treatments such as transfer pricing policy, corporate restructurings, interest deductibility, and complex VAT rules. Finally, the tax auditor will issue a compliance report that will need to follow a template about the compliance report and e-filing.
Under the new program, the voluntary tax compliance audit must be mentioned in the tax return to qualify for the exemption. The audit report must be produced by 31 October of the filing year or within six months of the tax return filing.
