The Commissioner-General of the National Revenue Authority (NRA), Jeneba Kpaka-Bangura says they will ensure compliance in the payment of rental income tax, which she said is presently ‘low.’
The Commissioner made this statement at the government’s weekly press briefing in Freetown on 20th February this year.
“Prior to now, we were having huge revenue from the rental income tax unit at the NRA; though at that time, we hadn’t had records of all the commercial and rental properties across the country,” she said. She also recalled how upon taking up office in December last year, rental income tax was among the first issues she discussed at a meeting with her staff, and explained that they are currently putting mechanisms in place to ensure compliance in the payment of rental income tax.
The rental income tax is one of the ‘major’ tax units that they have at the NRA, but its compliance level is low, she emphasised.
Rental Income tax is a withholding tax that tenants should ensure property owners pay to the NRA.
“The ten percent of the rental income tax should be deducted from the amount of money paid as rent,” she maintained, adding that tenants should let property owners know that.
Giving updates on their revenue target for this year, the NRA Commissioner noted that 14.972 billion Leones has been set as their annual revenue projection, saying they would have to break the said target into quarters. The quarterly amounts would not be the same, she added.
Their revenue targets, she noted are set by Parliament and other partners like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), adding that they don’t set targets by vacuum.
She added that the Ministry of Finance is their supervisory body that leads the process of setting the NRA’s annual revenue target.
She continued that they have been ‘surpassing’ past revenue targets, but that those set of targets were affected by the status of the global economy, and as a result their target for each year had been different.
On average of revenues collected daily in January 2024, Kpaka-Bangura stated that four million Leones was collected during that period.
“At the end of the month, we strive to surpass the monthly target,” the Commissioner General went on, adding they barely met their targeted revenue mobilization in January.
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