As part of activities to celebrate the Indian Ocean Youth Day, which was commemorated on December 12, the Seychelles National Youth Council in partnership with the Seychelles Revenue Commission organised a financial education workshop to enlighten youths on different aspects of tax and customs.
The half-day education session was for a group of young entrepreneurs and other youths, including those in the Seychelles National Youth Assembly (SNYA), who are aspiring to become entrepreneurs or who wanted to broaden their knowledge on the subject.
The workshop took place at the Seychelles Trading Company (STC) conference room.
Although the lockdown has negatively impacted on the youths, it has also encouraged them to step out of their comfort zone to start their own businesses which has resulted in new goods and services production methods, productivity and competition in the country.
The financial education workshop covered a variety of topics. It was led by officers from the Seychelles Revenue Commission’s (SRC) tax and customs divisions headed by commissioner general Veronique Herminie.
Among some of the topics discussed included registration of business and obligations, mode of payments, lodgment, income tax, VAT, business tax, penalties, customs value, commercial importation, customs declaration, restricted and prohibited goods and facilitation of clearance among others.
Addressing the participants, the chief executive of the Seychelles National Youth Council (SNYC), Penny Belmont, said that starting a business can be exciting or can bring about real headache and pain especially for first timers as the process comes with its tax requirements as prescribed by the various tax laws.
She noted that the biggest challenge our youths are facing when setting up their own businesses is taxpayer education and compliance which can negatively impact the cost of doing business.
“We need to educate our young people about taxes, how to pay taxes, why we pay taxes, where the money goes and as a tax payer, not only do I want to know where my money goes, I also want to support the use of the tax money. I want to know if it is spent carefully and wisely on things that benefit the society,” she added and thanked the SRC for putting together the workshop to advise the youths.
“I am 17 years old and soon I’ll be joining the world of work and this workshop has helped me to understand better what taxes are all about and how they work and how I will benefit from them in the future. I only knew that we had to pay taxes to support the country economically but now I have learned more about them in detail,” said Lissa Diaz, a member of the SNYA.
Sanjay Labiche, a small entrepreneur in the cleaning business, said, “I’ve just opened a small cleaning business and with policies changing every now and then, it was important that I attended this workshop to learn more especially that I am a taxpayer as well.”
The SNYC theme for the Indian Ocean Youth Day was ‘From Innovation to Revolution: How the Younger generation can transform Seychelles?’ .
Source: Seychelles Nation