By: Staff Writer March 08, Colombo (LNW): The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) will be paying closer attention to the tax compliance of highly wealthy individuals numbering 137 in the country as a part of the IRD’s efforts to restore fairness and confidence in Sri Lanka’s tax administration by ensuring that the wealthy contribute their fair share and pay the right amount of taxes. Sri Lanka which has a population of 22 million only had 137 persons who paid income taxes above 5 million rupees and there were only 3,020 value added tax files, official data showed. Sri Lanka had 5.8 million households and there were 293,305 tax files in 2020 and 120,000 had filed returns in 2021. About and 58,000 had paid tax. Of the total 28,621 individuals had paid less than 10,000 rupees, 22,368 had paid 100,000 rupees or less, and 5,493 had paid 500,000 rupees or less,. For the purpose of serving high net worth tax payers a High Wealth Individuals Unit (HWIU) has been established at the IRD, which is located in the Large Taxpayer Office. Accordingly, the HWIU has received additional resources to focus on high-income and high-wealth individuals. As a first measure, the HWIU will be contacting a select number of wealthy individuals and will work with them and their advisors to ensure that they are up to date with their filings of Tax Returns. IRD will also help them identify and avoid mistakes or omissions early in the filing process. The HWIU will be conducting additional risk assessments and profiling of wealthy taxpayers to conduct audits on cases that have the highest risks. At the same time, the IRD is enhancing its collaboration with both domestic and international organizations to access information that will help the HWIU to identify potential tax non-compliance. The IRD will also be working closely with Banks, the Financial lntelligence Unit (FIU) and other tax administrations through its extensive Treaty network with 45 countries. This collaboration will help the HWIU to identify banking records and assets of wealthy individuals that may not have been disclosed. The IRD is committed to monitoring the tax compliance of wealthy individuals and their related groups. By enhancing the focus and engaging with them, the IRD can be confident that wealthy individuals are duly paying their right amount of taxes. Through this engagement approach, we hope to enhance their willingness to participate and contribute to the government’s revenue collection efforts to overcome the critical socio-economic issues confronted by the country, said the Inland Revenue Department in a statement issued on Thursday (7).