Bereng Mpaki
TAXPAYERS can now engage the services of licensed accountants to help with matters related to filing their tax returns.
This is after the Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA) this week signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Lesotho Institute of Accountants (LIA).
The agreement, which is part of LRA’s implementation of its five year strategy running from 2018 to 2023, is intended to facilitate collaboration between the two institutions on areas of common interest for the benefit of their respective constituencies.
The LRA, which was established through the Lesotho Revenue Authority Act of 2001, is the main body responsible for collection of specified revenue on behalf of the government.
LIA on the other hand, was established by the Accountants Act of 1977, to regulate the accountancy practice in Lesotho.
While using accountants’ help is not compulsory, it will not come free for interested taxpayers as the accountants will charge them.
LRA Commissioner General Thabo Khasipe said the arrangement will empower accountants to act as tax agents or aggregators such that one accountant can represent multiple taxpayers.
He said the agreement would help to reduce the number visits their clients take to LRA offices to file their returns as engaging accountants would ensure their documents are filled and presented appropriately.
“We believe that we can deliver our mandate better when we join hands with our stakeholders and we believe that LIA is one of those important stakeholders to help with that,” Mr Khasipe said.
“With this MoU we thought it would be helpful for licensed accountants to work with our clients, whereby the accountant will act as a tax agent representing several clients who would otherwise need to individually visit the LRA offices. So, this will reduce the influx of our clients at our offices.”
He further indicated that the agreement also has an element of training where LIA can assist LRA with its accounting training needs.
For his part, the Chief Executive Officer of LIA, Monyaola Mosoloane said the collaboration with the LRA will not only result in improved revenue collection for the taxman, but also reduced cost of compliance and turnaround time.
He further indicated that this engagement would also ensure that their members are licensed to help taxpayers.
