Manning: Landlord tax will leave people homeless

SAN Fernando East MP and former minister in the finance ministry Brian Manning said a lot of people may become homeless because of the government’s proposed landlord tax.

Manning was responding to comments by Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo in a December 8 Newsday article.

Tancoo said there were stark differences between the government’s landlord tax and the People’s National Movement (PNM) property tax.

Tancoo said the PNM was saying the taxes are similar but the former administration’s tax was based on residential income which did not exist.

But in a phone interview on December 9, Manning said the property tax that was based on the annual rental value of the property.

“Then from there, there would be a ten per cent discount and then, what was left, you’d be charged two per cent per annum on the remaining 90 per cent.”

Manning said the landlord tax was based on the annual rental income, which was exactly the same.

He said there are two strata of taxation: 2.5 per cent on annual rental income of $20,000 or less and 3.5 per cent on gross annual rental income exceeding $20,000.

“Which makes this version of the property tax more expensive than what the PNM had been proposing.”

Manning said anyone renting a room in their homes would have to pay the tax.

“If it is residential, you’d have to change it to commercial? What exactly is he saying?” Manning asked.

He spoke to the government’s registration fee of $2,500, which, he said, before people earned any income, they would have to pay.

“It is the bold-face hypocrisy of this government many find difficult to stomach. Anybody looking at this would see, this landlord business surcharge is structured, almost exactly, like the PNM’s property tax and it is being done so at an even higher rate than was proposed by the PNM,” he said.

Manning said this was going to raise the cost of rent for people and they’d have to pay more.

“You are paying more in rental expenses, you’d be paying more at businesses because of the electricity surcharge they implemented. They increased the cost of alcohol and it is not small.

“Every imported item, there is also a tax on that, in terms of the container processing fee. The customs declaration transactions users fee – 100 per cent increase; environmental tyre tax – 100 per cent increase.”

These taxes were detailed in the Finance Bill, 2025 which passed in the Lower House on December 5 and is now being debated in the Senate.

This was sure to increase the cost of living for Trinidadians, Manning said.

Manning said many of Trinidad and Tobago’s vulnerable were renters working for Cepep or URP, forestry division programmes, and all shut down by the UNC-led government.

“Many of them were now forced to apply to social development for employment benefits, which is a fixed form of compensation. Their expenses are all going up.

“The Minister of Finance, after putting 50,000 people on the breadline overnight, is now trying to also put them on the street and make them homeless.”

He added that the government might have to supply people with free housing because they would be unable to afford anything else.

“This is the most mismatched, thoughtless, confused budget that I have seen in my entire life. It makes no sense. It just attacks every sector of this country with ridiculous taxes and, in many cases, will put several industries out of business.

“It has already put thousands of people on the breadline and now it will put thousands of people on the streets because they are now homeless.”

He added that the government spent the last 20 years opposing any form of property tax although they knew it would have supplied funding to local government.