The arrears of government revenue stands at approximately $1 billion. The Department of Inland Revenue is attempting to reduce the amount of under reporting occurring and chip away at the large amount of money outstanding. Head of the Revenue Enhancement Unit, LaPaige Gardiner said, “approximately 15% or one tax payer has been relatively compliant. There has been a $10 million unreported amount of taxes which translates to about $1 million in VAT.”
While the government has collected $120 million, exceeding its July target of $114 million, real property tax collection continues to be a challenge. Acting Controller at the Department of Inland Revenue, Shunda Strachan explained saying, “we came in about $5 million over forecast but really that was more on the VAT side and we saw a large increase from the sale of properties really from VAT on conveyances. But in terms of real property tax, our real property tax numbers still need a bit of work and so we really will be engaging private collectors as of this month to help us with those numbers.”
There is also expected to be a change from financial year to calendar year, to this Ms. Strachan said, “we expect the change in calendar year will assist us in business license compliance because yet again all business license will expire at the same time and they will have to be renewed at the same time. So that helps us in compliance with business licenses.”
