The passage of the amendments to the Revenue act of 1985 updated 2011, will seek to address the gross imbalance that exist between tax collection from PAYE individuals and the “Mr Bigs” in the society most of whom pay little or no taxes at all.
The tax situation is Jamaica is nothing short of disgraceful, with piles and piles of taxes being placed on those currently in the tax net, while approx 50% of the rest of the society gets a free ride. This amendment is intended to address this inequity.
For far too long the 50% tax complaint population in Jamaica have been paying for the 100%, many of whom lives a life of opulence and gorge themselves on imported luxury items, while putting extreme pressure on the dollar to meet their voracious appetite for the finest imported items. Its full time these folks be draw into the tax net, so the burden on the rest of us can be reduced.
The threat of capital flight is merely hogwash , which is solely intended to cause “panic” in the financial markets, but the simple fact is tax havens are disappearing very fast and there are very few places left to hide their funds.
I must commend the PNP lead administration for taking a bold step in correcting this gross inequity which have existed for a very long time and they should ignore the empty threat of capital flight.
At the same time more needs to be done to improve the process of paying taxes, its way too complex and way too much time is spent standing in lines to pay taxes.
The process must be made simpler and it must be done in a hurry because with this new change, it should see more people making their way to the tax collectorate, which means even longer lines, more wasting time and increased loss of production hours.
The amendment to the TAJ Action March 2013 was done to address this and we wait to see if their are any improvements in this process.
The act which was amended is noted below, however I do not have the amendments.
Filed under: Taxes |
Warren's Blog 
The passage of this bill was unnecessary and a waste of time. If TAJ was getting off its ass to pursue the non-compliant persons all of this foolishness could’ve been avoided.
Every person that wishes to do business at the tax office has to have a TRN. What TAJ should be doing is to monitor all the TRN holders that are not filing income tax return. Whether it be via PAYE or self-employed. They would then send out their auditors/investigators to these persons not filing returns to find out their situation. If these persons are found to be performing any form economic activity they are assessed and made to pay plus interest and penalty.
The will to get things is lacking in every sphere of Jamaican. I have no hope for this country until we get the type of leadership we have been lacking for all these years.
What you are suggesting was started under the former JLP but I am not sure what happened what derailed the process.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090816/lead/lead5.html
WOW…. somebody pinch me to make sure I’m not dreaming. I will re-read later to confirm what was said above is reality. 🙂
I did a double take when I read this entry from Jay. So Jay, let me ask you this: why was the JLP so “hot and bothered” about this Bill?
Did you see how Peter Phillips exposed the shameful hypocrisy of Audley Shaw and the JLP on this matter, by reading from Cabinet minutes that revealed that the JLP while in Govt has initiated the same very thing?
I just don’t understand why people are unable to see why the jlp will forever be in opposition – their way of doing things is so jarring.
Each time I hear Audley Shaw talk, I realize why the IMF programme he presided over was shot to pieces – he had no balls or intention to carry through the reforms – he just wanted the money to jack up the NIR and then boast about it.
Mich don’t be intellectually dishonest. Nowhere can you find where the previous govt rolled out anything similar to what this govt did.