The Large Taxpayer Unit of VAT has advised companies to immediately pay all debts and arrears owed it or face the full rigors of the law. The Large Taxpayers Unit, falls under the Value Added Tax (VAT) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and has the responsibility to oversee the full payment of taxes to the state. The unit has warned companies that have failed to honor their tax obligations over the last couple of years to take immediate steps to settle their bills or face serious consequences. The Unit received a warrant from the Commissioner of the VAT Service, Anthony Minlah, to recover all monies these large companies owe. According to the Principal Revenue Officer of the Large Taxpayers Unit, Victor Ababio, all efforts made in the past by the agency to recover the debts have failed, hence the need to apply sanctions in order to recover these funds, which amount to about GH¢1.6 million. “We’ve gone through various procedures including a combination of dialogue and amnesty to recover these monies, but to no avail. Section 34 of the VAT Act mandates the agency to pursue firms that are indebted to the service. We have no option but to apply the sanction of sealing off the premises of the affected companies. At this point, there is ‘no retreat and no surrender’, we will collect all the monies owed us,” Mr. Ababio emphasized. He further explained that the Unit has a target to meet, hence, the application of various measures to collect all arrears. On Tuesday, officials of the Large Taxpayer Unit stormed the premises of Prestige Motors and Super Paper Products Company (SPPC) to recover debts owed them. Prestige Motors Ghana Limited owed an amount of GH¢448,531.82, and have been in arrears for the past two years; with SPPC also owing GH¢635,118.81, arrears for the last three years. At the premises of Prestige Motors, officials of the company made a swift move by providing a cheque of GH¢50,000 to clear part of the debt, whilst provisions were made to pay off the remaining debts. Meanwhile, VAT has initiated an audit into the accounts of the large companies to find out their actual financial state. According to Mr. Ababio, the measure would enable the service to know the right amount of money to levy. Source: Daily Guide