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Finance ordered to improve monitoring of business gross receipts
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Posted on Apr 16 2006
The House of Representatives has tasked the Department of Finance to study the feasibility of linking all businesses to a central computer system to monitor their gross receipts.
The lawmakers recently adopted House Resolution 15-37 in an effort to curb tax fraud. They requested Finance to assess the feasibility of the proposed central computer system and the costs involved in implementing it. They also set a six-month period within which Finance should submit the feasibility study to the Legislature.
H.R. 15-37 notes that many businesses underreport their business gross receipts and get away with not paying the correct amount of taxes to the CNMI government.
The resolution also points out that the departments of Finance and Commerce currently lack the enforcement capability and funding required to investigate and monitor each business establishment within the Commonwealth.
“A more effective way of enforcing the CNMI tax laws is to install within the Department of Finance a central computer system that is linked to all businesses in the CNMI so as to monitor all business gross receipts,” the resolution states.
It adds that such system is now being utilized in many U.S. jurisdictions. (Agnes E. Donato)
