The Guyana Revenue Authority will commence payment of PAYE Refunds shortly. The payment will be made for the period 2006 to 2011, and will be paid after the customary verification process has been conducted and represents a major departure of what usually occurred with the payment of refunds which were only made for large amounts owed to tax payers. This exercise, which will see well in excess of 60,000 refunds being paid to employees who filed their individual returns along with their respective employers, who would have submitted their employers’ Form 2s will be facilitated using the Total Revenue Integrated Processing System, TRIPS. Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur said that permission was given to prioritize and process the refunds due to PAYE taxpayers for the period, using a methodology which will see taxpayers being placed into three categories based on the amount of the tax refund payable to them. He said that in order to logically process the refunds, taxpayers have been placed in three bands based on the value and number of refunds. As a result, taxpayers with refunds amounting to less than $500 will be given a tax credit, which will be used to offset any future liability, or outstanding debts for any tax. This measure will be applied, given the volume and value of the refunds for this category of taxpayers. Further, Mr. Sattaur noted that it would be impractical to either mail or ask taxpayers to come in to uplift these refunds, since the cost to GRA and the taxpayers would exceed the value of the amount. Taxpayers with refunds between $500 and $1000 will be asked to visit the agency to uplift these monies. In this category, an estimated 5,000 taxpayers stand to benefit from the payout. The GRA will publish the names of approximately five hundred eligible taxpayers weekly, and they will have one month to uplift their monies after their names have been published. Refunds not uplifted by this category of taxpayers will be given as a tax credit against their names as in the case of Category One. Category Three will comprise taxpayers with refunds greater than $1000 and they will receive a cheque from the GRA. The processing of this transaction will entail the use of an automated cheque generating system that will result in a significant amount of cheques being prepared for dispatch to the taxpayers. The commissioner General says the payment of refunds will commence in early December and he is urging taxpayers to take this opportunity to ensure that their addresses associated with their TINs have been updated to ensure that they get their refunds in a timely manner. This can be done by taking a proof of address to their new Head Office located on Camp Street