The COVID-19 coronavirus continues to spread in many countries. More and more cases of the disease are also known in Cameroon. The evolution of this health situation is worsening and the economic consequences are beginning to be perceived, even feared.
In addition to the health precautions messages that you all receive from MINSANTE as citizens, we are taking the lead to provide you with alternative measures to fulfill your reporting obligations while awaiting directives from the tax authorities.
1. Your obligations
We remind you that you are required to submit your declaration within 15 days of each month following that in which the transactions were carried out. Even if during the month or quarter, no taxable transaction was carried out, a declaration must nevertheless be subscribed, with the mention NONE on the line.
The declarations must be deposited at the Center of Taxes territorially competent and be accompanied by the means of payment corresponding to the amounts liquidated (art 151 and 152 of the CGI).
It therefore follows from these provisions that companies cannot benefit from any postponement of the period for subscribing declarations or payment or from any remission of rights due to the impact of the epidemic on activity.
2. Sanctions
In addition, article L103 recalls that the non-filing of a declaration giving rise to Office Taxation, leads to:
IFor VAT, the loss of the right to deduct the upstream tax and the VAT credit relating to the previous period;
In terms of Income Tax, the loss of the right to charge the deficits of previous years as well as tax credits.
In addition, late payment of tax entails the application of interest delay of 1.5% per month of delay. For the specific case of taxes paid spontaneously, any declaration or late payment entails the application of a penalty of 10% per month of delay, without exceeding 30% of the tax due in principal (article L106).
3. Our advice
Consequently, companies which are unable to gather all the elements necessary for drawing up their VAT declarations, in the current context of containment, can request an authorization from the tax administration in order to resort to a reporting system based on a lump sum assessment of tax due. I do not know if such a provision is provided for by the CGI. In any event, even if the tax bases are calculated on a flat-rate basis, deductions (VAT, IS deposit, etc.) will not be accepted by the tax authorities. Consequently, it is the taxpayer who will be injured.
As a result, the companies concerned can subscribe their monthly VAT declarations by carrying out a simple estimate of the amount of VAT due for one month and by paying, the following month, a deposit corresponding to the amount of this estimate.
Thus, to proceed, when the time comes, to the adjustment of the VAT actually due according to the actual elements drawn from the activity over all of the previous months (settled in the form of installments), the companies will have to relate to the declaration of regularization the cumulation of the elements relating to the past month (under which the declaration of regularization is itself subscribed) with those of the preceding months which were the subject of installments, then to charge, on this same declaration, the totality of the advance payments.
