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For instance, self-employed persons and persons “trading as” should be
aware that the MBT can be carried forward to future tax obligations and that
the tax should only be paid by persons earning income of over $3 million and
not gross receipts.
Also, companies that are dormant with no business activity should not be
required to pay the Minimum Business tax.
TAX COLLECTION ACT (Property Tax)
The proposed Bill to amend the Tax Collection Act, i.e. The Tax
Collection(Amendment) Bill
, raises grave concern as it proposes to allow for the
sale of property to collect outstanding property taxes.
Bearing in mind that the Tax Collection Act, at S. 46, already allows for a summary
procedure to collect taxes (i.e. a quick court process) and bearing in mind that no
sale of property in Jamaica can take place without property taxes being paid up,
the new provision is draconian and unworkable.
The new bill allows for a sale of property to take place, once 3 consecutive
financial years have passed without property tax being paid. See clause 6 of the
amending bill.
Property taxes are assessed as a percentage of the unimproved value of the land
which is usually a very small figure in comparison to the full value of the property.
One could easily be selling property worth $10,000,000.00 to recover $20,000.00
in arrears for property tax.
This is unrealistic and unduly burdensome. Most Jamaicans who own property
have that property as their sole asset. A provision such as this, if left unfettered,