KPMG Academy complimentary webinar on “Taxes and the Constitution” on 5 August

KPMG Academy will hold an exclusive complementary webinar titled “Taxes and the Constitution” on 5 August at 3:00 p.m.

President’s Counsel Dr. K. Kanag-Isvaran would shed light on the power of the Parliament to enact tax laws and the powers reserved to the Provincial Council by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to legislate taxes pertaining to land and property and whole and retail sales in the context of Imputed Rental Income Tax introduced by the IMF, in its second review report. This would also cover the averment on “Constitutional Constrains” referred in the IMF second review report. The power to impose and collect stamp duty applicable to the transfer and lease of land will also be analysed in the context of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

Connected to the above, constitutionality of the implementation of the Social Security Contribution Levy (Also the Nation Building Tax) in the context of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution would also be discussed in the webinar.

Though slipped the attention of many, Foreign Exchange Act contains an open-ended tax amnesty that was introduced at the Committee Stage Amendments, which was not in the original Bill that was challenged in the Supreme Court. The webinar will dissect the details of the same.

The salient feature of the webinar would be the analysis of the Constitutional principles underlying taxation, including the landmark Special Determination of the Supreme Court (SC SD 01-09/2022) in relation to Supply of Goods and Services Tax Bill which was held unconstitutional by three- bench Judgment delivered by Judges of Supreme Court; Vijith K. Malalgoda PC, Murdu N.B Fernando PC and Yasantha Kodagoda PC.

The unconstitutional features of the Supply of Goods and Services Bill and the Special Commodity Levy Act which paved the way for sugar and onion scams, led IMF to recommend the abolishment of Discretionary Taxes in the diagnostic report issued in September 2023. This matter would also be discussed in the webinar.

The Webinar will analyse the constitutionality of Section 2A of the VAT Act introduced by Value Added Tax (Amendment) Act No 6 of 2005, which empowers the Minister to specify the VAT rates via gazette notices.

The discussion on the webinar would also entail the constitutionality of the tax holidays granted by the Port City as well as the important observations made by the Supreme Court.

KPMG Sri Lanka Principals Suresh R.I Perera and Rifka Ziyard will be joining President’s Counsel Dr. K. Kanag-Isvaran in the discussion.

To register, please contact Lakshika at [email protected] or 077 206 3354, or Seneli at [email protected] or 077 444 6649.