17. Amendment of section 85 of the principal enactment

Official English translation. The Sinhala text prevails. Open the official Sinhala text, official PDF on documents.gov.lk

Section 85 of the principal enactment is hereby amended as follows: -

(1)

in subsection (1A) of that section, by the substitution for the words “a person shall.”, of the words “a person shall, prior to January 1, 2023”;

(2)

by the insertion immediately after subsection (1A)

of that section, of the following new subsections: -

“(1B) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), with effect from January 1, 2023, a person shall withhold tax at the rate of 14% of the payment, where such person pays a service fee or an insurance premium with a source in Sri Lanka to a non-resident person.

(1C)

Subject to subsection (3), with effect from January 1, 2023, a person shall withhold tax at the rate of 5% of the payment, where such person pays a service fee with a source in Sri

Lanka to a resident individual who is not an employee of the payer –

(a)

for teaching, lecturing, examining, invigilating or supervising an examination;

(b)

as a commission or brokerage to a resident insurance, sales or canvassing agent; or

(c)

for services provided by such individual in the capacity of independent service provider such as doctor, engineer, accountant, lawyer, software developer, researcher, academic or any individual service provider as may be prescribed by regulation:

Provided however, this subsection shall not apply to a service payment which does not exceed Rs.100,000 per month.”; and

(3)

in paragraph (a) of subsection (3) of that section, by the substitution for the word and figures “section 83;”, of the words and figures “section 83, section 83A or section 84A;”.

Read on from s 18