Imbert: Tax amnesty from July 5 to September 17

FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert on Friday announced a tax amnesty for all taxes, once returns are filed from July 5-September 17. It is the Government’s fourth amnesty, he said.

He was in the House of Representatives piloting the Finance Bill 2021.

“The amnesty is applicable for the years up to December 31, 2020, and for the period January 1, 2021 to May 31, 2021.

“(It) grants relief from penalties and outstanding interest once the tax liability is paid between the dates of July 5, 2021 and September 17, 2021.

“The minister, as we have done in the past, will be able to prescribe a later date by order to extend that period if it becomes necessary.”

If a tax or penalty remains outstanding after September 17, the interest and penalties will be revived, he warned, to become payable as if the amnesty did not exist.

“The last tax amnesty in 2019 yielded an astonishing sum of $2.4 billion, way beyond our wildest expectations. We had expected to get maybe a billion.”

He said this amnesty will deal with all taxes, including corporation tax and personal income tax. It will be effected by Act 13 of 2019, a miscellaneous provision act.

“(It) will be applicable to outstanding interest and penalties under the Registration of Clubs Act, the Income Tax Act, Corporation Tax Act, Unemployment Levy Act, Petroleum Taxes Act, Health Surcharge Act, Value-Added Tax Act, Stamp Duty Act, Property Tax Act, miscellaneous taxes, Tourism Development Act.”

He said due to a drafting oversight on this bill, he will bring an amendment at committee stage to include the Supplemental Petroleum Tax Act.

Imbert said, “It is the Government’s intention to lay and pass a version of the Trinidad and Tobago Revenue Authority Bill in this Parliament and complete the debate and passage of that legislation before the end of this year.”

He said no new legislation was needed to enact two other budget measures, namely the imposition of VAT on luxury items (which is still being worked on) and the removal of VAT from imported building materials (except road paving and aggregate materials.) He can do both by issuing a ministerial order under the Value Added Tax Act, to be subjected to the House’s negative resolution.

Imbert said the bill will let the Government increase its borrowing limit from $55 billion to $65 billion for general development under the Development Loans Act.

He promised stiffer penalties for offences under the Praedial Larceny Prevention, Summary Offences, Tobago Control, Children, State Lands, and Minerals Acts.

Imbert vowed illegal quarries would be banned from supplying material to government construction projects.

He said people may invest in buying proposed government savings bonds to earn interest rates of three per cent to be denoted in either TT or US dollars.

Imbert said the price of most petroleum products in TT was similar to world prices, but that diesel was “significantly below” the world price, a state of affairs he will maintain.

He said the Government would keep its flexibility to maintain its subsidy on diesel, at least until the pandemic was over so as not to impose hardship on the population. “We will not fully implement these new provisions with respect to reform of the liquid petroleum product sector until we feel it is appropriate to do so but are setting in place the legal framework to allow a new system for the pricing of petroleum products.” He said the bill has a commencement provision for these changes to occur only when proclaimed by the President of the Republic.

Imbert detailed a formula to determine the levy to be paid to the Government by traders supplying fuel to gas stations and by marketers/gas stations selling to drivers.

“All this is necessary because we are moving away from fixed prices where a surplus can be generated to prices that will move in accordance with international prices.”

A gas station must pay the government a levy namely the wholesale price minus the ex-terminal/ex-refinery price minus the gross margin, all multiplied by the volume sold.