Welcome to the Maldives Tax Newsletter where you will find highlights from national developments in tax law and policy.

Tax Cases

National Marine Dredging Company v Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) [TAT-CA-B/2022/002]

On 24 April, the Tax Appeal Tribunal passed its judgement in National Marine Dredging Company v Maldives Inland Revenue Authority [TAT-CA-B/2022/002].

In its judgement, the Tribunal highlighted the following:

Receipts that had suffered withholding tax can be deducted in the computation of Business Profit Tax (BPT) for tax year 2018 even though the cash for 6 of the 8 invoices in dispute was received in 2017.
Although the withholding tax payments had been due in 2017, Tribunal declared that the conditions of Section 10(d)(8) of the Business Profit Tax Act (BPT Act) were only fulfilled in 2018 as the withholding payments were not made until then. Section 10(d)(8) states that receipts that have suffered withholding tax can be deducted in the computation of BPT.
Loss relief cannot be granted for 2018 as the previous year’s loss had not been carried forward as per Section 13(b) of the BPT Act. Section 13(b) of BPT Act states that a loss may not be set off under Section 13(a) unless a claim for the loss is included in the tax return for the tax year in which the loss was incurred.

Conclusion

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