BURS/IRD/ 7 II (8)
23rd July 2015
The Chief Executive OFcer
Botswana Institute of Charted Accountants Private Bag 0021
GABORONE
Attention: Igs. V lylolatedi Dear Madam,
RE: BURS E-SERVICES PROJECT UPDATE• BICA
This letter is a follow up of our letter to dated 6t° May 2015 and our subsequent meeting on
the 02 d July 2015 on the above subject.
As you will recall BURS has been undertaking various activities aimed at improving service delivery for its clients. This has involved the development of various electronic services (e- services) such as VAT registration, filing and payment. These were the first phase of this project. The registration and filing phases of the project were successfully completed in September 2013 and taxpayers have started to use these platforms although not at a pace that we had anticipated. To this end, we request you to encourage your members to use of the existing VAT e-filing platform and to continuously give us feedback to enable enhancement of the platforms. While the e-payment module is yet to be completed clients are however able to pay their taxes to the BURS account at Bank of Botswana through the BISS and EFT platforms.
Phase 2 of the project comprises all the remaining tax types (corporate income tax, individual income tax, withholding taxes etc.) and processes and is expected to be completed in December 2015. Due to the complexity of the requirements of this Phase the delivery of the this Phase will be staggered in 3 installments, namely
Release 1.’ e compass/ag he withholding taxes modu/e (PAYE), individual income fax filing
and payment and which is expected to be completed in October 2Of5,
Release 2: encompassing the corporate income tax and other withholding taxes (OWHT) in
November 2Of5.
Release 3.’ encompassing registration, de-registration and applications for Tax Clearance
Certificates processes will de completed in December 20J5.
As part of its service delivery improvement agenda, BURS will also introduce document scanning infrastructure that will assist in capturing information manually submitted by taxpayers into our back end systems. This is part of a wider process re-engineering and re- design of forms. This process is expected to be completed in August 2015. is also engaged
Other critical impacts of these projects include that employers will be required to submit a list of their employees and payees monthly with their monthly remittance forms (ITW 7A and 7B forms). This is so that the information will be used to pre-populate the Annual Return (ITW10A) so that on filing of individual returns there will be easier reconciliation of credits. BURS will in time be announcing the availability of the platform with which to upload files. It is anticipated that the approved file formats will initially be XML and CSV. This part of the project is anticipated to cover periods commencing 1• July 2015.
More updates will be given as the project progresses.
I also wish to extend our apologies for the delay in providing this update and look forward to your continued support in our endeavors.
Yours sincerely,
S Lekau
For Commissioner General
