Liberia Revenue Authority Proposes Community Revenue-Sharing Initiative

Monrovia – The Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) has proposed to the Government of Liberia a community revenue-sharing initiative for the real estate tax type as a mechanism for expanding the real estate tax net, increasing tax compliance and enhancing domestic resource mobilization, while at the same time creating job opportunities for Liberians.

Under the initiative, which will hopefully begin in 2017 with a pilot project in Montserrado, townships, boroughs, cities and administrative communities will share in the real estate revenue collected on an 80/20 sharing ratio.

The LRA, through a draft memorandum of understanding (MOU) which is still under discussion with the Executive and the Legislature, will directly work with local authorities of townships, boroughs and cities to implement data collection of all real estate properties and property owners in order to expand the real estate tax net and facilitate the collection of real estate taxes by the LRA.

“We have been holding series of meetings and stakeholders’ engagements for over a year now on this real estate net expansion initiative, intended to improve domestic resource mobilization which is part of our Domestic Resource Mobilization strategy,” LRA Commissioner for Domestic Tax, Darlingston Talery says.

Commissioner Talery was speaking Thursday, November 16, 2016 when the LRA met with the Superintendent and local officials of Montserrado County to further discuss and fine tune the draft initiative for submission to government stakeholders. Commissioner Talery also said that domestic resource mobilization has become even more imperative as donor support dries up globally.

LRA Commissioner General Elfreda Stewart Tamba, gracing the meeting, said the initiative was part of the LRA way of getting the local people involved in raising awareness about real estate taxes.

Besides, the Commissioner General noted that the project is also a way of giving back to communities and cities, and if the recommendation is approved by the Government, each community will receive about 20% of the revenue collected through their effort, saying “We need to build our Country together.”

CG Tamba noted that under the draft MOU, each designated community resident working with the LRA will be remunerated by the LRA.

Meanwhile, Montserrado County Superintendent Mrs. Florence Brandy, along with local authorities of the county, has embraced the initiative, indicating that t is a great employment opportunity for citizens.

Moreover, she said, it will help to create tax consciousness across the various communities and enhance revenue collection to fund development projects.

Though the initiative has received the general blessing of the Executive and the Legislature, the key unresolved point is the channeling of the community’s share and the schedule for roll out to the other Counties. Discussions are still ongoing within the government.