West: Trinidad and Tobago can be better after pandemic

MINISTER of Public Administration Allyson West said on Tuesday TT can emerge from the pandemic even better than before, as she justified the Government's amnesty on penalties on various taxes which is due to run from July 5-September 17.

She spoke in the Senate debate on the Finance Bill 2021.

West said from the start of the pandemic the Government had pushed several initiatives to help citizens and businesses, namely moratoriums on loans, lowering the repo rate so as to lower the interest rate, offering government-supported loans, giving VAT refunds and other refunds, and offering individuals salary relief and income support grants.

"We have, throughout the period, worked hard on supporting the population," West said. "Now, it will never be enough, and there will always be complaints that 'The Government doesn't care about people.' and so on, but we continue to work to try to ensure that the population comes out of the pandemic strong enough to carry on and strong enough to revive TT, because we will all need to put our shoulders to the wheel to get us not only back to where we were, but better and stronger than where we were."

She said in this light, the Government has continued to listen to the population.

"Among the things that have been requested of us is relief in respect of taxes," she mentioned.

West said the amnesty on the penalties of tax was nothing to be sneezed at, and gave examples.

"In respect of income tax, we pay interest at the rate of 20 per cent per annum when we do not pay those taxes on time.

"If you are one of those taxpayers who has been found to have deliberately understated his or her income, you can be charged a penalty of up to three times the tax liability."

She said late payments of PAYE attract an immediate penalty of 25 per cent plus interest of 20 per cent. Late VAT payments attract an initial penalty of eight per cent and then a two per cent per month interest charge.

"All of those penalties and interests add up, and quite often you will see in very short order the penalty and interest in fact exceeds the tax liability."

She said the Government sought to help the lease-payer who could not afford these charges, plus give incentives to people who had settled their other liabilities before their tax liabilities.

She gave an example.

"I can quite easily imagine a context of a businessman who hires a cadre of, say, 20 staff members not being comfortable or certain about what size of income he can expect to receive in the next month or the next quarter, because things are so uncertain.

"Do I send some people home and pay the salaries and related taxes in respect of the rest that are left? Or do I pay the net tax for the individuals so they can continue to survive and defer (tax payments)?"

She emphasised the waiver will be not of the tax liability, but of the associated penalties and interest due for the late payment of the tax.

"If you fail to take advantage of the amnesty, all the taxes that were due would be reinstated and apply as though the amnesty never existed."

She urged people to take advantage of the amnesty and listed the taxes entailed. These are taxes payable under the Registration of Clubs, income tax, unemployment levy, health surcharge, VAT, stamp duty and property tax.

She said at the committee stage of the bill other taxes will be added to this list: corporation tax, Green Fund Levy and energy taxes.