First permanent tax site to open at Diamond – GRA

The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) will open the first in a series of permanent tax centres on April 1, 2015. This first centre will be located in the G3 Building at Diamond, East Bank Demerara and is expected to provide taxpayers with basic services.

Melissa Baird acting Public Relations Manager told media operatives that the entity has for a number of years been toying with ideas of how to best serve taxpayers and how to take its services to the taxpayer in an efficient and effective manner, especially in areas where the population is growing.

The new tax centres she said will cater for basic services in a manner which is convenient to the taxpayer as they will be located in “strategic” locations.

These centres, according to Baird, are being developed in stages and will begin with services such as filing of income tax returns and Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) applications as well as applying for compliance. Other services, she stressed will be offered as “the need arises.”

The centres are expected to replace the GRA tax sites which had been set up at convenient locations around the country to cater for persons who were unable to visit the established offices to file their returns.

The first centre at Diamond East Bank Demerara is expected to soon be followed by one in the Mahaica/Mahaicony area with others being opened “as the need arises”.

Fabian Clowes, Communications Officer noted that as GRA is currently in tax season the centre is opening at an opportune time.

He said that persons can use the centres to file their tax returns and urged taxpayers to make every effort to ensure that their tax returns are filed by the April 30 deadline to avoid late penalties.