The Value Added Tax (VAT) begins auditing the accounts of companies within the large taxpayer unit Wednesday to ensure that they are filing the right tax returns. This is to ensure that companies do not cheat by filing credit returns and claim refund from the VAT Service or file nil returns and not pay anything to the Service. The VAT Service says it has taken this decision because of the high number of nil and credit VAT returns filed by the companies. Meanwhile the service will continue with its distress action to seal off the premises of defaulting companies. The leader of the VAT task force, Victor Owusu Ababio, said: “They should try as much as possible to rush or run…to settle their indebtedness before we get close to them, because when we get close to them, when we get to them, we’re not going to retreat, we’re not going to surrender. We’ll ensure that all the monies are paid us before we leave the premises.” In a related development, government has been told to do some soul searching to find out why it is not meeting its domestic revenue targets. In the budget review presented to Parliament on Tuesday, Finance Minister mentioned that though domestic revenue for the first half of the year had gone up by some 19 per cent compared to the same period last year, it fell short of the target set. While government might be comforting itself that at least it has done better compared to last year, a former Deputy Finance Minister Kweku Agyeman Manu says it only means that government is not doing enough. Source: Myjoyonline.com/Ghana