News / National
Chinamasa vetoes lifestyle audit
23 Jun 2017 at 07:20hrs | Views
Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said he is against the current lifestyle audit being carried out by various statutory board on a number of individuals across the country.
Chinamasa said the audits which are being done to combat corruption are inaccurate and inhumane. He said instead of lifestyle audits, local authorities needed to establish a proper database documenting the country's mansions then charge rates based on independent property evaluations.
The lifestyle audits include scrutiny of employees' bank accounts and personal assets acquired between 2009 and 2016. It involves verification of a person's personal expenditure patterns to determine if it is consistent with his or her declared taxable income.
Any variances noted result in an amendment to the declared income and recovery of any additional tax.
The audits are carried out to assess and collect additional revenue, educate clients on how to correctly declare their income and make self-assessment of their tax status in terms of the law, promote compliance and update clients' tax affairs.
Economist, John Robertson, said while the lifestyle audits were a part of the solution to ending corruption, the exercise would be futile if it was not targeted at top government officials.
"There is need to break immunity privileges and include the high-level government officials like ministers, army generals and connected individuals - who have accrued wealth which is higher than their salaries - in order to effectively plug corruption," he said.
He noted that many people in the country were accruing wealth which is far higher than their incomes.
"Even people like prophets must also be brought to book because they are a part of the corruption web because they are in the habit of asking followers to put money in the hat for them to receive blessings," he added.
Chinamasa said the audits which are being done to combat corruption are inaccurate and inhumane. He said instead of lifestyle audits, local authorities needed to establish a proper database documenting the country's mansions then charge rates based on independent property evaluations.
The lifestyle audits include scrutiny of employees' bank accounts and personal assets acquired between 2009 and 2016. It involves verification of a person's personal expenditure patterns to determine if it is consistent with his or her declared taxable income.
Any variances noted result in an amendment to the declared income and recovery of any additional tax.
The audits are carried out to assess and collect additional revenue, educate clients on how to correctly declare their income and make self-assessment of their tax status in terms of the law, promote compliance and update clients' tax affairs.
Economist, John Robertson, said while the lifestyle audits were a part of the solution to ending corruption, the exercise would be futile if it was not targeted at top government officials.
"There is need to break immunity privileges and include the high-level government officials like ministers, army generals and connected individuals - who have accrued wealth which is higher than their salaries - in order to effectively plug corruption," he said.
He noted that many people in the country were accruing wealth which is far higher than their incomes.
"Even people like prophets must also be brought to book because they are a part of the corruption web because they are in the habit of asking followers to put money in the hat for them to receive blessings," he added.
Source - dailynews
