statutory duty of the tax authorities

It's a fundamental right of the taxpayer to be clear how it is to be taxed. In the case of transfer pricing guidelines, the guidelines are so vague that in practice, no two person applying those rules to any business would arrive at the same price or profit margin. It is therefore a duty owed by the tax authorities to the taxpayers that the tax authorities work to assist the taxpayers in arriving at a negotiated and acceptable mechanism. Only when the mechanism has been agreed upon, can the taxpayer begin to adopt the system of computation and pay tax prospectively on that agreed mechanism. It is the statutory duty of the tax authorities to bring the taxpayer to the level where the taxpayer can easily and clearly comply with the complicated tax rules as applicable to the taxpayer in the evolving business dynamics. And as the businesses evolve yet again, further negotiation would need to take place. In carrying out its statutory duties, the process is just as important and it is the duty of the tax authorities not to disrupt the business operations of the taxpayer. The business operation is after all the engine that pays the tax. And the tax authorities ought to see itself as a facilitator providing a service to the taxpayers to enable the taxpayers to pay tax in the most efficient and satisfactory manner. Pretty much the same shift that we now see in the immigration office, from the perception that the passport holder is at their mercy to the current view that it is in fact a service provider to the passport holder.

We hope that in due course, the tax authorities as a statutory body, could be regularly reviewed on its key performance not just internally, but by the taxpayers. Has the tax authorities fully discharged its statutory duty (and terrorising is not a prescribed duty under the income tax legislation), in assisting taxpayers to pay its taxes without disruption to its business operations and without incurring non-income generating expenses in order to do so.