Question Tag: Taxpayer Compliance

(A) You have been asked to lead a team of tax auditors to audit Timpani Ltd covering the period January 2015 to December 2018. The company has its financial year end 31st December each year. The agreed date for the commencement of the audit is 3rd January 2020. You have been told that in view of the urgency required of the work, the audit report should be produced not later than 30 days after the date of commencement of the audit for the report to be sent to Commissioner-General.

Required:
As the audit supervisor, draw up an outline plan of how the audit assignment will be arranged. This will form the basis of your detailed audit work to be carried out.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                (B)

In the course of auditing the Tax Returns and records of Timpani Limited, the following observations have been made by the team and your audit manager has invited you to discuss its tax implication from both the Value Added Tax (VAT) and Direct tax point of view.

The company has multiple ‘strategic business units (SBU) located throughout the country and other West Africa countries. As part of your review of the records of (SBUs)’ you noticed the following:
i. Same components of material are purchased by different units at different prices.
ii. Marketing personnel have been offering discount/price reductions on catalogue/quoted prices beyond the authorized quantum/range, some of which were ratified subsequently.
iii. The company has written off all debts which have been outstanding for more than three years in its books. The total amount was GH¢680,000 and has also made provision for 5% on the outstanding debt of GH¢3.5 million.
iv. The company normally sends goods on sale or return basis. At the end of the year 2019, goods valued at GH¢10 millions were still in the custody of the agent and another goods worth GH¢1.5million had been returned by customers for defects. It is the policy of the company to issue VAT invoice to accompany all goods sent out to both customers and agents.

Required:
Draft a report to your audit manager covering the above observations and discuss the tax implications of these observations vis-a-vis the returns submitted by the taxpayer. Make assumptions, if necessary.