A Critical Analysis of Effectiveness of Tax Offences Control Mechanisms Under Rwandan Law

II.4.2 Additional sanctions

Apart from administrative sanctions provided by tax laws, any person who commits offences provided for by the tax law may be subject to two categories of additional sanctions: those taken by the Commissioner General of RRA and those taken by the competent tribunal^51(*).

a) Sanctions taken by the Commissioner General

Sanctions taken by the Commissioner General of RRA include closure of business activities for a period of thirty (30) days and publishing the tax offender in nationwide newspapers.

b) Sanctions taken by Courts/Tribunals

The additional sanctions taken by courts/tribunals include barring the tax offender from bidding for public tenders and withdrawal of a business register. The sanctions taken by tribunals/courts are based on the gravity of the offence committed.

II.4.3 Administrative Sanctions provided for by Customs law

According to article 226 of the n° 21/2006 of 28/04/2006 establishing the Customs System, Customs may take one or more of the following administrative measures against one or more of the offenders of the Customs law:

· Temporarily deny access to Customs offices, bonded warehouses, or temporary storage facilities;

· Temporarily suspend or terminate authorization to act as a clearing agent;

· Temporarily suspend or terminate his/her authorization for a customs procedure with economic impact;

· Temporarily suspend or terminate access to Customs electronic network.

II.4.4 Other sanctions not mentioned in the law

Other administrative sanctions taken by the tax administration but not mentioned in the tax law include:

· Refusal to benefit from tax clearance certificate (quitus fiscal);

· Refusal to benefit from facilities of payment in instalments of their tax arrears;

· Refusal to allow the certificate giving right to a public tender;

· Refusal of automatic refund (refunded after audit);

· Non renewal of the of clearing agencies' license due to poor performance record

· Denial of pre-clearance facility

According on law on tax procedure, A person who obstructs or attempts to obstruct the activities or duties of the Tax Administration in the exercise of its powers, aids, abets or conspires with another person to commit a violation of tax Law, is subject to penalties as those provided to the taxpayer^52(*).

* ⁵¹ Article 67 of LTP

* ⁵² Article 66 of LTP