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THE Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has once again hit the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) after it seized the federation’s five vehicles in connection to large outstanding tax arrears worth over 1.1 billion/- that TFF owes the authority.
The TRA Director for Tax Payer Services and Education, Richard Kayombo confirmed yesterday in Dar es Salaam that the decision of the authority to seize the vehicles was part of its efforts to remind the federation to pay the debt.
Kayombo, who was quoted yesterday in one of the interview with media, confirmed that five TFF vehicles, including the national team bus were being held at the Yono Auction Mart, who are working on the issue on behalf of the authority.
“Yes we have seized five TFF vehicles due to the outstanding Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax arrears arising from foreign coaches and the Value Added Tax (VAT) from the 2010 international friendly match against Brazil,’ he explained.
According to Kayombo, TFF has only managed to pay a little from the 1.6 billion shilling they owe TRA. Until todate, the federation still owes the authority over 1.1 billion shilling which the authority is reminding them to pay promptly.
Last year, the revenue authority froze the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) bank accounts due to large outstanding tax arrears generated from foreign coaches and the Value Added Tax (VAT) from the 2010 international friendly match against Brazil, the action which threatened to paralyse many of its activities.
However, in their defence, TFF claimed that paying the P.A.Y.E tax on foreign coaches is not their responsibilities since it’s the government that pays them for the national team and they also argued that they were not responsible in organising the high profile friendly with Brazil in 2010.
And it was government special committee that organised and coordinated the match that raised a record 1.8 billion shillings in gate collections.
The foreign coaches who have been hired to train the national teams are Brazilian Marcio Maximo, Itamar Amorin, Marcus Tinoco, Rodrigo Stockler and Danish Jan Paulsen, Kim Paulsen and Jacob Michelsen. The federation did not comment or confirm TRA act of attaching the five vehicles despite the reports concerning the issue.
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Source: All Africa
