New acting Commissioner General for IRC

Sam Koim, the former chairman of the disbanded Investigation Task Force Sweep, has been appointed as acting Commissioner General of the Internal Revenue Commission.

His appointment comes after Dr Alois Daton’s acting appointment term came to an end last month.

Koim’s appointment was announced by Treasurer Sam Basil today.

In a statement issued Koim said he now has a mammoth task ahead of him, given the country’s company tax compliance rate of 9 percent rate last year.

There is also the K18 billion in unreported sales revenue in 2016 and a tax debt of K5 billion yet to be collected.

Koim said he has a burning sense of urgency to empower the staff and Commissioners of the Internal Revenue Commission for optimal performance to help close the massive compliance gap and increase tax base.

And while he is new to the organisation, he went on to say he is not new to compliance and those evading tax, including tax advisors, will face penalties under the tax laws.

Koim said tax evasion is not simply a matter of failing to pay one’s debt to government. It is theft and those who systematically conspire to defraud the public revenue will be criminally prosecuted.

The new acting Commissioner General also said he will be initiating corporate criminal prosecutions for those corporations that defraud the State of monies that are due to the State in tax.

(Sam Koim file picture)

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