Imbert moves to get Trinidad and Tobago off global blacklists

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Finance Minister Colm Imbert - File photo

FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert will go to Paris, France on November 6 to sign a treaty that could take Trinidad and Tobago off two global blacklists for tax administration.

At a virtual press conference on November 5, Imbert said he will first fly to Paris to sign a treaty focused on transparency and exchange of information on tax purposes. He said once TT is a signatory to this treaty, it will be taken off the Global Forum’s blacklist for non-compliance.

“Once you sign the treaty, you can have tax-sharing arrangements with all the countries and members of that convention, which is over 100 countries.

“They didn’t allow us to do it before because they said we were not ready. Our laws were not up to standard, the Inland Revenue division was not compliant and so on."We have gotten to the point where we have crossed the threshold and therefore I am going to Paris to sign the treaty, which is a huge step in getting us off the EU blacklist.”

He said once the treaty is signed he will go to the EU in Brussels to show the progress it has made and have the country taken off its blacklist for non-compliance in tax transparency as well.

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“The EU piggybacks from the Global Forum,” Imbert explained. “The Global Forum is the organisation that looks around the world at countries that are either compliant or non-compliant in terms of sharing tax information.

“By becoming compliant with the Global Forum, we will automatically become compliant with the EU,”

He hopes once he approaches top officials in the EU to show the progress TT has made in becoming more transparent, the EU will take the country off its blacklist and put it on a “grey list.”

Imbert also revealed that Minister of Public Administration Allyson West will act as Finance Minister in his absence. The Minister in the Ministry of Finance is Brian Manning.

$105M IN PROPERTY TAX

Also at the virtual conference, Imbert said  104,102 property tax payments had been made thus far, amounting to $105,609,387 in taxes collected by Government.

Of the property-tax regime, he said: “It is going quite well.”

Imbert revealed that the largest payment of property tax came from the Tunapuna/Piarco region, at about $80 million.

He said the deadline for delivery of tax notices by the Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) had been extended to November 29 and as a result, the time for payment without penalty had been extended from November 29 to December 20.

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He reminded the public that the tax notices from the BIR should not be confused with the valuation notices. He said the valuation notices which people get from the Valuation Division give the annual rental value of a property, while the tax notice will give the final tax payment, which is calculated at two per cent of the rental value.

“If you don’t get your property tax notice, you will not be subject to any penalties. I will have to make appropriate amendments to the law to ensure that they can pay at a later date,” he said.

Imbert also said the TT Revenue Authority is  recruiting staff as it continues to become operationalised.

“There are a number of individuals in the public sector who expressed their desire to transfer,” he said. “I am quite satisfied that in this fiscal year/ next calendar year it will become operational.”