Unpaid tax payments owed by Samoan church ministers who have not registered under the government’s new tax laws now total $ST5,000 each.
A report in Newsline Samoa newspaper says all of them have been issued tax default notices after failing to file by the July 15 deadline.
Minister for Revenue, Tialavea Tionisio Hunt told the newspaper that the majority of those who defaulted are from the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa.
Only 16 ministers from the CCCS have registered with the tax office as required by law, but the majority are sticking to a decision made in May this year at the church’s annual general conference to reject government’s move to tax them.
Some have defiantly refused to accept assessment forms delivered by ministry staff.
Newsline says that according to Minister Tialavea under long standing requirements of the law, the Ministry of Revenue is authorised to collect unpaid taxes directly from the taxpayers or ‘faifeau’ bank accounts.
“The Ministry has already registered all the EFKS ‘faifeau’ regardless of whether they refused to do so or not,” said Tialavea.
“The law empowers the Ministry to register all faifeau taxpayers after the deadline for registration on 15 July, 2018”.
The Minister also said the tax office was able to secure a list of all the EFKS faifeau and the respective villages they are serving and they add up to 198 or just under a third of all 644 religious ministers in Samoa.
