Belize City, Mon. Sept. 27, 2021– The Ministry of Finance, in conjunction with the Belize Tax Services, is preparing to launch IRIS, its new “Integrated Revenue Information System”, which will allow taxpayers to make payments online.
The new system, which will be fully integrated with the local banking network, will make standing in line to submit tax payments unnecessary, and it is also expected to make a more efficient tracking and collection process possible for GoB, which is seeking to minimize instances of non-payment and to hold tax evaders accountable.
When interviewed this week by local reporters, the Financial Secretary, Joseph Waight, explained, “This essentially is focused on the Belize Tax Services, and of course the two main elements are income tax, which is a Business Tax, and also the [General Sales Tax].” The innovative system will enable the merger of these two departments, he said.
The Financial Secretary noted that while accommodations have not been made for integrating the payment of property and land tax into the system, the government is preparing to embark on the introduction of such systems in the third phase of the project. In addition, GoB is in the process of establishing a Revenue Recovery Unit that will work in conjunction with, though independently of, IRIS.
The project is expected to maximize the funds received by the Belize Tax Services — both through the reduction of administrative costs (savings that are estimated to be equivalent to 2.17% of Belize’s Gross Domestic Product, according to Waight, and through the prevention of tax evasion, since persons registering a business will now be required to get a tax registration number for that enterprise.
Michelle Longsworth, Director General of the Belize Tax Services, elaborated on this: “The importance of the system is to improve compliance. We do know that we have taxpayers who tend to evade being in a tax bracket. What this will do is encourage taxpayers to do their processes and do their services from home. What that will do is provide for tax administration to now refocus, [switching from inputting tax returns to] now doing a more risk-based administration, where now we will look and seek out these persons who are evading taxes.”
The system will additionally allow interconnectivity across major revenue-collecting departments of government. The Belize Tax Services will now be able to exchange information with the Customs and Excise Department easily. When business owners file taxes, the built-in intelligence tool will do a comparative analysis to ascertain whether they properly accounted for their income and did not engage in under-reporting.
The official introduction of IRIS was a hybrid event — with an in-person portion being held at the Belize Biltmore Plaza with media personnel only and the online version being hosted via Zoom and the Government of Belize Press Office Facebook page. The IRIS system will come on-stream on the www.irisbelize.bts.gov.bz domain on Monday, October 4.
The project was funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) under the “Strengthening Tax Administration Project.”