Commissioner General of Taxation Fathuhulla Jameel has stated it is crucial to collect taxes from multinational corporations. He made the statement on the 11-year anniversary since the establishment of the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA).
MIRA was established as an autonomous body responsible for tax administration, after the modern tax system was established in the Maldives on March 18, 2010, during President Mohamed Nasheed's administration.
In his press statement, Commissioner General Fathuhulla said the authority has made great progress in modernising its services and establishing failsafe systems in its 11 years of service. MIRA has established a business continuity risk and enterprise risk registry and continues to provide training to its employees as part of its efforts to improve its services, he noted.
Furthermore, Fathuhulla also highlighted the importance of collected taxes from large companies, especially multinational corporations, during the time of economic hardship brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, Fathuhulla said MIRA auditors are working with Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Tax Inspectors without Borders Programme with a transfer pricing audit expert from New Zealand.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fathuhulla said MIRA has established means to pay taxes online as well as move forward deadlines and allowed taxpayers to pay their taxes in installments. He noted other ease of policies including waiving fines and said that MIRA has continued to expand its services by establishing new collection centres in two regions, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
MIRA has expanded its services to 17 atolls since its establishment on August 2, 2010.