Nearly 40,000 tax returns were lodged under the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service’s tax amnesty programme, with about $75 million in payments and declared liabilities associated with the lodgements.
The figures are contained in the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs’ review report of the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service annual report 2024-2026, tabled in Parliament.
According to the report, the amnesty programme was primarily intended for taxpayers with outstanding returns, unpaid principal tax or unresolved historical obligations.
“Nearly 40,000 returns were lodged during the programme and approximately $75 million in payments and declared liabilities were associated with those lodgements,” the report states.
However, the report noted that the 40,000 figure represents returns rather than individual taxpayers, as a single taxpayer may have lodged several outstanding returns.
It said the number of individual taxpayers who participated, including how many had previously been non-compliant, still needed to be confirmed by FRCS’s Taxation Division.
The report said the programme had nevertheless produced compliance benefits.
“The Amnesty has improved the accuracy of taxpayer accounts and returned a substantial number of taxpayers to the filing system.”
The committee also questioned how many taxpayers had benefited from more than one tax amnesty and what safeguards were in place to prevent repeated reliance on such programmes.
FRCS said it had not, at the time of the review, carried out a matching exercise across previous amnesty programmes to determine whether taxpayers had benefited multiple times.
It stressed that completing an amnesty did not remove a taxpayer’s future obligations, with normal filing and payment requirements resuming after the relief period.
Late filing and payment penalties can also apply, while taxpayers who default may face audits and recovery action.
FRCS maintained that tax amnesties should not become an alternative to meeting normal tax obligations.
Its policy position, according to the report, is that amnesties should be “exceptional and time-limited, not a recurring substitute for compliance.”
