Get taxes from doubles vendors, taxi drivers

Government should be looking at doubles vendors and taxi drivers, as they are the low and no taxation compliance sectors of society, says tax expert Angelique Bart.

Bart was speaking on Monday during a presentation as part of the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) Mid-Year Budget Analysis held at the Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business, Mt Hope.

"My husband says that the doubles vendors, if I were to quit law we could do that. Because you have 200 customers at $5 per double(s), in five minutes how much money would you be making? I can't follow his math but basically, he is saying there is about 200 plus million on average that the doubles section of society generates and we have to tackle that. We have to confront the issue."

She said the same rationale applied to taxi drivers.

"So the question becomes very relevant because there is a significant amount of revenue that is not filtering into the tax system. So rather than overburden the people who are already burdened with high rates, very low deductions or incentives in some cases, (and) the individual person, the employed persons like myself...it becomes a real and a very relevant question for the question of revenue generation."

She said the property tax legislation had been passed – the Property Tax (Amendment) Bill was passed on Friday night – and questioned what would be the impact on the manufacturing sector which was already facing strain given foreign exchange shortages and productivity issues. She expressed concern that it could be a significant enough bill to eat away at the profit margin.

"And you have to ask yourself if that is good enough business for you to either get into or stay in."