Director-General of the Income and Sales Tax Department (ISTD), Hussam Abu Ali, said the government’s decision to shun imposing or hiking taxes during “recent years” indicates effectiveness of the tax reforms that have been carried out on Jordan’s tax system.
Speaking at a dialogue session held by Jordan Economic Forum (JEF), Abu Ali noted the Kingdom has been carrying out tax reforms for more than three years, based on a basic rule aimed to avoid “imposing or increasing taxes, in line with the Royal directives and vision.”
Gaps and distortions that existed in Jordan’s tax system, which stimulated the ISTD to find tools to enable the department address the tax system from its various aspects, under Law 38 of 2018, with the aim of combating tax evasion and plugging loopholes in legislation related to tax evasion , according to Abu Ali.
The basic rule of tax reform was to enable the ISTD to play its role in combating tax evasion and take all decisions to plug the existing loopholes in this regard, he noted.
During the session, Abu Ali presented the key achievements in the tax reform file by making the ISTD a data bank for all economic activities, aimed to verify auditor-taxpayer declaration unless proven otherwise, which enhanced mutual confidence.
He also pointed out gov’t reforms related to combating tax evasion mechanisms, which are now automated for all sectors by auditing target companies’ data.
On the ISTD’s new decisions to improve performance ands service quality, Abu Ali also said the ISTD replaced the security escort during tax-related inspection and audit tours by using body-worn cameras to record any operations.
Abu Ali pointed out that the department formed tax settlement committees to solve old claims, without paying any fees, adding that majority of the decisions issued were mutually accepted.
In addition, he said the department established a special institute to raise staff competencies and build their functional capabilities to “high” level to keep pace with all developments on tax legislation, which contributed to developing auditors’ performance.
Overall, he affirmed these measures have worked to stop any tax increases on goods and services in recent years and have improved tax collection processes.
Source: Jordan News Agency