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Jamaica's tax system gets poor rating... 13th worst worldwide for doing business
published: Friday | October 6, 2006 <DIV class=KonaBody>
Dr. Omar Davies, Minister of <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-SIZE: 10px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1px; COLOR: orange! important; BORDER-BOTTOM: orange 1px solid; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; POSITION: relative; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent">Finance</SPAN>, is presiding over the 13th worst tax system in the world, according to the World Bank. - file
Jamaica's tax system was ranked the 13th worst for businesses across 175 countries surveyed for the latest report on business-friendly countries, having slipped two places from last year as Argentina and Benin stepped up.
According to Doing Business 2007, a co-publication of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, businesses paying the full gamut of taxes in Jamaica during 2006 had to make 72 payments during a fiscal year, use 414 hours to file them and fork out 52.3 per cent of profit - all the same as last year.
Total tax rate
The island's tax system is managed by the keeper of the treasury, Finance Minister Dr. Omar Davies.
Interestingly, the measure for total tax rate as a percentage of profit in both Argentina and Benin were higher, 116.9 per cent and 68.5 per cent respectively, and although the South American country had fewer payments to make - 34, Benin had the same amount - 72.
Additionally, although Benin requires less time of 270 hours to pay taxes, Argentina saw the number of hours needed increase from 580 last year to 615 in 2006.
Overall, in the ease of doing business ranking, Jamaica fell from 48 to 50, but remained fourth in the Caribbean after St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda.
Broad slate of reforms
Former Soviet state Georgia, Mexico and Romania surpassed Jamaica, having implemented broad slate of reforms during the year, while Tonga fell below, from 46 in 2005 to 51 this year.
Jamaica's business environment hardly saw any changes during the year under review, 2006, but saw the cost of dealing with licences decline from US$15,300 to US$14,200 and improvements in the time to import and export goods, from 26 days to 20 days and from 20 days to 19 days, respectively.
The survey assesses and measures regulations affecting 10 areas of everyday business, which include starting a business; dealing with licences; employing workers; registering property; getting credit; protecting investors; paying taxes; trading across borders; enforcing contracts; and closing down business. </DIV>