Revenue Authority to earn extra $300M

THE TT Revenue Authority (TTRA) will earn the country an extra $300 million in tax payments in its first year of operations, Finance Minister Colm Imbert told the Lower House last Friday.

He forecast that in successive years thereafter the extra tax-take earned by the TTRA would “rise exponentially.”

Imbert said both the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) had given TT poor ratings regarding its tax collection measures.

He said the TTRA will facilitate the sharing of information between the Board of Inland Revenue and the Customs and Excise Division.

Other countries both inside the Caribbean and outside had shown the benefits of an integrated revenue authority, he said. Recalling that he earlier on Friday laid the TTRA Bill in the House, he said it needs a three-fifths special majority of MPs supporting it, and he wants it to be examined by a parliamentary Joint Select Committee (JSC.)

In another statement, Imbert said some commentators had dubbed TT a “tax haven” by wrongly interpreting its “non compliant” assessment by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes.

He said what the 2011 rating had only meant was that TT was not sharing information.

Imbert sought to get TT compliant with the Global Forum, European Union and Financial Action Task Force, regarding having rules for the exchange of tax information.

He said that by the next Global Forum peer review due next month (June), all due legislation should be in place.

This was the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2018 and the Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters Bill 2018. Imbert said that at the House’s next sitting, he will lay a bill on the exchange of tax information under the Global Forum, which needs a special majority and so will first go to a JSC before debate in the House.