Tweet
Whenever I see reports like this I am more convinced that we should just get rid of income tax and find a more equitable way to collect tax revenue.
This is simply ridiculous. The administrative costs are probably close to or higher than the actual amount of income taxes being collected.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Income tax shame!
Besides PAYE, only 5,000 J'cans paying up
Thursday, September 24, 2009
EXCLUDING Pay As You Earn (PAYE) contributors, only 5,000 Jamaicans are actually paying income tax.
The shocking revelation was made yesterday by Prime Minister Bruce Golding to a group of corporate executives discussing issues relating to the economy at the regular luncheon of business leaders hosted by Observer Chairman Gordon 'Butch' Stewart at the newspaper's headquarters in Kingston.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding (second right) makes a point during yesterday's luncheon hosted by the Observer at its headquarters on Beechwood Avenue in Kingston. The luncheon, hosted by the newspaper's chairman Gordon 'Butch' Stewart (right), had in attendance business leaders and members of Government, including (from left) PanJam boss Maurice Facey, Minister of Information Daryl Vaz, and president of the Bankers Association, Minna Israel. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)
Golding was responding to complaints by some executives that Government bureaucracy, especially its tax structure, was hindering economic development. But the Prime Minister sought to emphasise that it was not always the framework of the system but gross non-compliance among Jamaicans that posed the biggest problem.
"We have 243,000 PAYE and if you take out the PAYE from the individual tax roll, it's only 5,000 left," said Golding. "Out of all the gas station operators, doctors, engineers, lawyers, accountants, taxi operators etc, it's only 5,000."
The comments by Golding were made against the background that Jamaica was ranked a dismal 127th out of 132 countries in the World Bank's Doing Business 2010 report in the category of paying taxes.
Industry Minister Karl Samuda, in response to the report, alluded to the fact that "it's not a business of access as to whether or not you can get a bly and pay your taxes quickly, it's a question of the system".
"If we were to remove the bureaucracy that attends to the question of paying taxes at all levels, we could jump considerably and give a different impression of the country," said Samuda, adding that this was a primary area of reform that the Government was focused on.
However, Golding, while agreeing that bureaucracy was a problem, insisted that the non-compliance attitude amongst Jamaicans was exacerbating the problem.
"Take the question of property taxes for example, I don't know that there is any enormous bureaucracy about paying your property taxes... I don't know whether there is a problem about people getting their notices. What I'm saying is, does the difficulty in collecting taxes explain why we are only collecting 40 per cent of property taxes?"
During its budget presentation in April, Government had announced that a forensic data mining intelligence unit was being developed to identify a wide cross-section of self-employed persons to ensure everyone is paying his/her fair share of taxes.
It also announced a new phase of a tax amnesty which invited people who were not in the tax net to register and become compliant, with no questions asked about their prior years of non-compliance.
This is simply ridiculous. The administrative costs are probably close to or higher than the actual amount of income taxes being collected.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Income tax shame!
Besides PAYE, only 5,000 J'cans paying up
Thursday, September 24, 2009
EXCLUDING Pay As You Earn (PAYE) contributors, only 5,000 Jamaicans are actually paying income tax.
The shocking revelation was made yesterday by Prime Minister Bruce Golding to a group of corporate executives discussing issues relating to the economy at the regular luncheon of business leaders hosted by Observer Chairman Gordon 'Butch' Stewart at the newspaper's headquarters in Kingston.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding (second right) makes a point during yesterday's luncheon hosted by the Observer at its headquarters on Beechwood Avenue in Kingston. The luncheon, hosted by the newspaper's chairman Gordon 'Butch' Stewart (right), had in attendance business leaders and members of Government, including (from left) PanJam boss Maurice Facey, Minister of Information Daryl Vaz, and president of the Bankers Association, Minna Israel. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)
Golding was responding to complaints by some executives that Government bureaucracy, especially its tax structure, was hindering economic development. But the Prime Minister sought to emphasise that it was not always the framework of the system but gross non-compliance among Jamaicans that posed the biggest problem.
"We have 243,000 PAYE and if you take out the PAYE from the individual tax roll, it's only 5,000 left," said Golding. "Out of all the gas station operators, doctors, engineers, lawyers, accountants, taxi operators etc, it's only 5,000."
The comments by Golding were made against the background that Jamaica was ranked a dismal 127th out of 132 countries in the World Bank's Doing Business 2010 report in the category of paying taxes.
Industry Minister Karl Samuda, in response to the report, alluded to the fact that "it's not a business of access as to whether or not you can get a bly and pay your taxes quickly, it's a question of the system".
"If we were to remove the bureaucracy that attends to the question of paying taxes at all levels, we could jump considerably and give a different impression of the country," said Samuda, adding that this was a primary area of reform that the Government was focused on.
However, Golding, while agreeing that bureaucracy was a problem, insisted that the non-compliance attitude amongst Jamaicans was exacerbating the problem.
"Take the question of property taxes for example, I don't know that there is any enormous bureaucracy about paying your property taxes... I don't know whether there is a problem about people getting their notices. What I'm saying is, does the difficulty in collecting taxes explain why we are only collecting 40 per cent of property taxes?"
During its budget presentation in April, Government had announced that a forensic data mining intelligence unit was being developed to identify a wide cross-section of self-employed persons to ensure everyone is paying his/her fair share of taxes.
It also announced a new phase of a tax amnesty which invited people who were not in the tax net to register and become compliant, with no questions asked about their prior years of non-compliance.
Comment