Amended property-tax notices being mailed out

AMENDED property-tax notices of assessment are currently being mailed out, a notice issued on June 25 said.

The notices are being issued through the Ministry of Finance’s Inland Revenue Division.

The Ministry of Finance’s website said the public should disregard previous property-tax notices of assessment dated before March 6, as these were now null and void.

It explained the Property Tax Act had been amended to change the rate tax payable from three per cent to two per cent, and payments, deferrals and objections would only be accepted on the revised notices.

It reminded citizens that payments are due by September 30.

In March, amendments to the property tax legislation were laid in Parliament.

During a March 15 debate in Parliament, Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced a proposed extension to the time during which owners can lodge objections to the valuations they receive. It was proposed that they should get six months instead of 30 days to do so. Earlier this year, after notices were posted on some doors of revenue collection offices, which said property tax notices had been suspended until further notice. Imbert apologised for this.

Initially, the collection of property tax was scheduled to begin on March 1.

It was under the amendments that the annual taxable value for residential properties was reduced to two per cent.

The property tax and its collection has been widely discussed in Trinidad and Tobago, with the Opposition raising issues in and out of Parliament over the annual rental value of properties and issues related to deferrals, among others.