Contributed
Nicole Allen, senior business analyst at the Inland Revenue Department, shows Prunella Vassell, president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Jamaica, how to electronically file a GCT return using the tax authority's e-filing system at a focus-group session in October 2008.

Starting Monday, taxpayers will have the option of filing their monthly general consumption tax and special returns online, the Tax Administration Services Department (TASD) said Friday.

The service is available through the tax portal, www.jamaicatax-online.gov.jm.

Taxpayers already use the portal to pay GCT online, and have done so since December 2004, but were still required to physically submit the monthly returns at a collectorate.

Registration form

To utilise the extended service, taxpayers are urged to complete an application for electronic filing account registration form available online or at any collectorate in order to access the service.

The new online system for filing GCT follows a pilot of the system from October 29-November 7, during which, a select group of registered GCT taxpayers were allowed to file their returns through the tax portal.

Patricia Powell of Tank-Weld Group of Companies, one of the pilot companies, praised the new service as "one big giant step", saying in a statement announcing the service rollout that it eliminated waiting in long lines.

The passage of the E-transaction legislation last year cleared the way for the acceptance of electronic signatures, "a critical element for the implementation of e-filing", said the TASD.

Collaboration

"Following the legislative change, the tax authorities, along with FISCAL Services Limited, worked in collaboration to implement the expansion to the system."

The TASD said the new service is only phase one of a more extensive plan.

Phase two will expand the service to electronic filing of PAYE and corporate income tax returns in 2009. Other tax types will be added later.

business@gleanerjm.com

TASD LIST OF E-FILING BENEFITS