Tax unlikely before 2050

THE EDITOR: “Because de doctor say to pay as you earn/But Sparrow say you paying to learn/And me father say he sharpening the axe/For when the collector come to pay off the income tax” (Mighty Sparrow, 1959).

In 2017, I submitted a return for property tax, as was then mandated by the Ministry of Finance. On September 18 I was visited by a field assessor from the Valuation Division. I requested from him a carbon copy of the measurements which he took.

The request could not be entertained as no provision was made for the property owner to receive documentation that his property was evaluated. This I consider to be a breach of my fundamental right to know exactly what measurements are used to evaluate my property for the purpose of taxation.

Furthermore, without documentation, I can in no way contest any taxation imposed on me.

It is my understanding that property tax should not be introduced before at least 50 per cent of property owners have been evaluated. If it took three years to evaluate my property, and I live less than ten minutes’ drive from the Evaluation Division in Charleville, it is unforeseeable that sufficient property owners would be evaluated before 2050.

As a pensioner with comorbidity, I now have to budget for two community-spread viruses – covid19 and PNM20.

IMAAM IQUBAL HYDAL

Felicity

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