Noting that to date more than 17,500 entities have successful completed their reporting obligations under the Commercial Entities (Substance Requirements) Act, 2018 (CESRA), Minister of State for Finance Senator Kwasi Thompson yesterday urged businesses to take advantage of the month-long grace period to become CESRA compliant.<\/p>\n
Companies were in a frenzy last week, stating that the December 31, 2020 deadline to register under the new act had caught them off guard because their focus had been on mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
It led to a system crash of the government\u2019s registration portal last week, as thousands attempted to register before the deadline.<\/p>\n
Those that did not comply faced penalties up to $15,000, before the government on Sunday announced a grace period to January 31.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Ministry of Finance said although nearly 18,000 businesses have already applied, thousands more still have not.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government understands the challenges faced by some entities in complying and has made the decision to suspend late penalties until January 31 for entities that meet their reporting obligations before the end of the month. This follows an extension to the deadline from September 2020 to December that was granted last year,\u201d the Ministry of Finance noted in a statement yesterday.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo facilitate the demand, the Department of Inland Revenue (DIR) has allocated dedicated staff to process requests in the reporting portal. While some businesses have experienced delays, DIR is working around the clock to process requests.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addressing the confusion, Thompson said, \u201cMany businesses continue to make good faith efforts to comply with the new regulations. We all know that COVID-19 has been very disruptive and this is the first reporting cycle for the new regulations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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