Postby silvyrsurfyr » May 19th, 2011, 4:48 am
Restoring land and building taxes 'posing challenge'
Story Created: May 19, 2011 at 12:01 AM ECT
Story Updated: May 19, 2011 at 12:01 AM ECT
Legislation to restore land and building taxes has posed some legal challenges, Minister of Finance Winston Dookeran said.
Speaking with reporters yesterday at the Ministry of Finance, Dookeran said the restoration of land and building taxes was not so easily done.
"It has to do with the fact if you restore it, we (should) restore it at the current (property) values, the law says that. But if you restore it at the current values, it effectively increases the rate. And we are saying no. We want to restore it at the old values. But there are legal arguments as to whether we can or can't do that," he said.
Stating that the last government should have updated the values every year, he said: "The law says you have to restore it at the current market values and we are saying that would be counterproductive to our intention. So therefore we are saying find a way to restore it at the old values. But there is some issue over whether the law can retroactively do that."
On the issue of the tax amnesty being offered for income tax and other outstanding taxes to the State, Dookeran said the amnesty programme has been fairly successful. "We have met our targets, and a little more," he said.
The old land and building tax regime was repealed by the former People's National Movement (PNM) government in favour of an increase in property tax. The People's Partnership, in its campaign, had promised to abolish the PNM's property tax and to revert to the old system.
However, because of the difficulties in reverting to the old tax structure, there is currently no legislation that allows the Government to collect property tax. —Ria Taitt
