Tax on Doubles ?

[RedVEVO]

" ... Angelique Bart said government should pay greater attention at the low and none tax-compliant sections of society including doubles vendors and taxi drivers, as these people who provide good and services, make profits with nothing going into the state’s coffers .. "


http://newsday.co.tt/2018/05/14/tax-doubles/

Tax on " doubles " now ?

Tax on the Taxi man also ?

[De Dragon]

Yes, why should anyone earning income above the required amount not be taxed? Don't they use all the resources that taxpaying citizens fund? At some point we have to realize that whereas doubles used to be primarily a "hustle" and a "small man" thing, this is not the case with some of these vendors. Same goes for taxi drivers.

[Daran]

Double edged sword here, taxing them will ensure their prices go up. They are cash only businesses which make it very easy to evade tax. So in the end they'll send up their price for being inconvenienced but will then more than likely lie to the taxman. So better just leave them alone.

And money does go back to the state in the form of VAT when they spend money elsewhere. In drug economy line Trinidad lowering VAT was over of the most stupid things a government good done. Man if I were in government I'd reduce income tax to 20% and out VAT at 20%. Then legalized weed - you'll see recession done and entrepreneurship and the private sector booming.

[Daran]

Yes, why should anyone earning income above the required amount not be taxed? Don't they use all the resources that taxpaying citizens fund? At some point we have to realize that whereas doubles used to be primarily a "hustle" and a "small man" thing, this is not the case with some of these vendors. Same goes for taxi drivers.

Over 60k (not sure if self employed has different limits here) year on profit (after expenses such as paying for employees, rent, maintainence etc). As I said a good accountant will ensure they pay little to no tax in the end. And being a cash only business they could just bank and receipt for maybe 6-7000 a month profit and pocket the rest of cash. No one will be non the wiser.

Bigger issue is all these landlords collecting thousands or hundreds of thousands a month in rent and don't post a single dime in tax.

[fatboy slim]

All doubles vendors and taxi owners should rise their price if they have to pay tax and the poor pnm supporters who can only afford doubles and travelling fares will suffer. IT GOOD FOR YUH.

VOTE PNM2.jpg

[pugboy]

note all the noise impsbert make about increasing taxing on casinos and it aint happen yet
guess which % group own all the big casinos

[De Dragon]

note all the noise impsbert make about increasing taxing on casinos and it aint happen yet
guess which % group own all the big casinos

People will always be sympathetic/averse to taxing the "poor" doubles man, but this is magnified when they see the casinos still clearing millions. Since Patos days this casino taxing supposed to occur. Is the collection of tax for roulette, amusement machines in effect yet?

[RedVEVO]

Double edged sword here, taxing them will ensure their pruces go up. They are cash only businesses which make it very easy to evade tax. So in the end they'll send up their price for being inconvenienced but will then more than likely lie to the taxman. So better just leave them alone.

And money does go back to the state in the form of VAT when they spend money elsewhere. In drug economy line Trinidad lowering VAT was over of the most stupid things a government good done. Man if I were in government I'd reduce income tax to 20% and out VAT at 20%. Then legalized weed - you'll see recession done and entrepreneurship and the private sector booming.

Yes

Price of "doubles" will increase - more for the "doubles man "

Taxi man fares will increase .

Who will suffer ?

UNC back in power

[hydroep]

The problem is enforcement. Taxi drivers and doubles vendors are usually classified as self-employed and are supposed to pay income taxes. That they don't do so is tax evasion...no different to the people who supposed to fall into the million dollar tax bracket but somehow declare income of $ 999,999.99 and avoid paying their "fair share".

Instead of considering more taxes focus efforts on strengthening the system to ensure compliance. Yet to hear how the new Revenue Authority...apart from being a revamped administrative body...intends to catch those who fall through the cracks...

[pugboy]

the new scheme impsbert been talking about since day 1 of his job has not been implemented
only the big casinos paying the old taxes
ie simple annual per machine/table taxes which they make back in a few days....

the small chinese run operations aint paying a cent either........except the bandit tax

he talk about going after all the illegal operations and regularizing and taxing based on profits etc

note all the noise impsbert make about increasing taxing on casinos and it aint happen yet
guess which % group own all the big casinos

People will always be sympathetic/averse to taxing the "poor" doubles man, but this is magnified when they see the casinos still clearing millions. Since Patos days this casino taxing supposed to occur. Is the collection of tax for roulette, amusement machines in effect yet?

[lalloboy101]

doesn't stop there, what about the numerous mechanics as well that don't pay tax or say lynx machine not working , so is cash only

[RedVEVO]

doesn't stop there, what about the numerous mechanics as well that don't pay tax or say lynx machine not working , so is cash only

Why not tax everybody in the Central Market ?

Charlotte Street vendors ?

Nuts man ?

The irony

[pugboy]

agreed but its a monumental task to tax everybody
there just isnt the enforcement infrastructure in place
its equivalent to fighting crime from a manpower point of view

the best approach is always to tackle the high yield groups to send the message
the doublesman is the usual bad guy smallman
and the casinos rake in millions monthly
not to mention those churches collecting 10% salary

a vene hairdresser two houses from me charges at least $500 a client
work out how much he makes if he doing 6-8 a day

[sMASH]

pnm have sh!t for brains.

200 doubles in 5 mins, that is 40 in 1min. that is 1 doubles, wrapped, bagged, cashed, in 1.5 seconds.. .

does that occur during the whole hour?

what she is describing is only for a peak period, and still exagerated.


pnm wants u uneducated and hungry. full stop.

*laptops are very exclusive and must be revered,,, as sacred technology*

[Daran]

agreed but its a monumental task to tax everybody
there just isnt the enforcement infrastructure in place
its equivalent to fighting crime from a manpower point of view

the best approach is always to tackle the high yield groups to send the message
the doublesman is the usual bad guy smallman
and the casinos rake in millions monthly
not to mention those churches collecting 10% salary

a vene hairdresser two houses from me charges at least $500 a client
work out how much he makes if he doing 6-8 a day

Why do you assume he not paying taxes though? I know lots of hairdressers and salons that are limited liability companies and pay taxes. Usually, they pay themselves a small salary to avoid heavy income tax, nothing illegal or immoral about it.

You are 100% right though that collecting and verifying their tax files will be a monumental task. Probably cost more than the taxes they provide.

Which is why I advocate increasing VAT to 20% and taxing only the heavy hitters like casinos and landlords.

[Dizzy28]

agreed but its a monumental task to tax everybody
there just isnt the enforcement infrastructure in place
its equivalent to fighting crime from a manpower point of view

the best approach is always to tackle the high yield groups to send the message
the doublesman is the usual bad guy smallman
and the casinos rake in millions monthly
not to mention those churches collecting 10% salary

a vene hairdresser two houses from me charges at least $500 a client
work out how much he makes if he doing 6-8 a day

Doctors who take cash only as payment regardless of how much the bill is are probably a bigger tax leakage than doubles men. How much people have doctors that actually operate on a non-cash basis?

[Daran]

agreed but its a monumental task to tax everybody
there just isnt the enforcement infrastructure in place
its equivalent to fighting crime from a manpower point of view

the best approach is always to tackle the high yield groups to send the message
the doublesman is the usual bad guy smallman
and the casinos rake in millions monthly
not to mention those churches collecting 10% salary

a vene hairdresser two houses from me charges at least $500 a client
work out how much he makes if he doing 6-8 a day

Doctors who take cash only as payment regardless of how much the bill is are probably a bigger tax leakage than doubles men. How much people have doctors that actually operate on a non-cash basis?

100% true too.

Let's just get this straight. Anyone who has a small business (sole trader) and is collecting cash is 95% likely not paying tax on that income.

[pugboy]

Yep
Doctors lawyers
Fete promoters

[zoom rader]

This is another injun tax

[nemisis]

This is another injun tax

Can’t be because they already paying their taxes like everyone else all this means is that the few and far in between doubles men that not paying income taxes will have to worry about being caught. But surely those individuals are on the minority. It’s an “injun” tax as you put it of all those “injuns” habitually breaking the law by not declaring their income.

[nemisis]

This is a good thing in the long run imagine the drop in lifestyle diseases that may occur when doubles are $20 for 1.

[not_a_monkey]

The problem is enforcement. Taxi drivers and doubles vendors are usually classified as self-employed and are supposed to pay income taxes. That they don't do so is tax evasion...no different to the people who supposed to fall into the million dollar tax bracket but somehow declare income of $ 999,999.99 and avoid paying their "fair share".

Instead of considering more taxes focus efforts on strengthening the system to ensure compliance. Yet to hear how the new Revenue Authority...apart from being a revamped administrative body...intends to catch those who fall through the cracks...

This is all that is needed, for MoF and the investigative unit to do their jobs properly. To stupidly blurt out 'we should tax doubles vendors and taximen because my husband say they don't pay taxes' shows no relevant understanding of the taxation procedures in place.

[Dave]

If you enjoy benefits of the country it's only fair that once you meet the criteria that you should be contributing. However the ways and means to get this done as far as taxi and doubles vendors go, we are light years away from this actually happening.

[fallen_angel]

Doubles men pay taxes when they buy goods to prepare their product, taxi men pay taxes when they buy gas and car parts, putting insurance and vehicle inspection etc.

I saw someone earlier said target property tax rather than doubles men...people pay taxes every step of the way before they could have a property to rent out. you pay stamp duty when you buy land and pay vat when you buying building material and doing construction. If government so bent on taxing men who renting apartments....then give a tax break for buying material and building when the people trying to construct something...

It not fair to just tax everything left right and center...it will reach a state where we paying tax on a tax...how that making sense?

If they bringing more taxes then some concessions should be made to prevent tax overlap, or else all they doing is fueling frustration in the people who sacrificing their life working for the 1% and their financee to be fat.

Poor people don't pay, they avoid, evade and collect handouts from the government, rich people don't pay because they have the money and contacts in high places to find the loopholes, its the shrinking middle class that keeping this country afloat, while the fat ones ride their back and the poor ones sit on the sideline and complain.

[Dizzy28]

Doubles men pay taxes when they buy goods to prepare their product, taxi men pay taxes when they buy gas and car parts, putting insurance and vehicle inspection etc.

I saw someone earlier said target property tax rather than doubles men...people pay taxes every step of the way before they could have a property to rent out. you pay stamp duty when you buy land and pay vat when you buying building material and doing construction. If government so bent on taxing men who renting apartments....then give a tax break for buying material and building when the people trying to construct something...

It not fair to just tax everything left right and center...it will reach a state where we paying tax on a tax...how that making sense?

If they bringing more taxes then some concessions should be made to prevent tax overlap, or else all they doing is fueling frustration in the people who sacrificing their life working for the 1% and their financee to be fat.

Poor people don't pay, they avoid, evade and collect handouts from the government, rich people don't pay because they have the money and contacts in high places to find the loopholes, its the shrinking middle class that keeping this country afloat, while the fat ones ride their back and the poor ones sit on the sideline and complain.

Most of the inputs in doubles are zero rated - channa, flour etc. Which tax do you speak off?

[sMASH]

wasn't zero rated removed in exchange for the drop from 15 to 12.5% VAT across the board?

[Dizzy28]

wasn't zero rated removed in exchange for the drop from 15 to 12.5% VAT across the board?

No. A list of zero rated food items remained of mainly core food items. They merely cut it down from the expanded list the PP introduced which included things like sweetness beverages etc.

https://www.finance.gov.tt/wp-content/u ... tained.pdf

[nemisis]

Is it a new tax specific to doubles and taxi men? Or is it a tax they supposed to have been paying that they aren't??

[sMASH]

wasn't zero rated removed in exchange for the drop from 15 to 12.5% VAT across the board?

No. A list of zero rated food items remained of mainly core food items. They merely cut it down from the expanded list the PP introduced which included things like sweetness beverages etc.

https://www.finance.gov.tt/wp-content/u ... tained.pdf

tnx

[meccalli]