Tweet
Beleaguered finance and public service minister, Audley Shaw, says all construction workers including masons, plumbers, steel workers, electricians and other artisans, taxi and bus operators earning more than $196,872 per year have until October 31 to take advantage of a tax amnesty, which ends on October 31.
The long arm of the tax man is expected to reach restaurant and cook shop operators, bars and grocery shop operators, dance and party promoters, emcees, athletes, footballers and even teachers teaching extra lessons will have to account or they will have to pay all back taxes for the past six years.
Shaw, who needs to pull in an additional $25 billion in borrowings and taxes in order to meet the new fiscal deficit target of 9 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) agreed to with International Monetary Fund (IMF), also plans to rope in all haulage contractors and delivery truck drivers who have been earning more than the income tax threshold and not paying taxes, if they do not comply with the October 31 voluntary compliance deadline.
The government’s expenditure budget is now $561.4 billion, $6.38 billion more than the $550 billion presented in April.
The minister’s revenue budget of $326 billion was however running at $9.7 billion below the $95 billion programmed during the period April to July of this fiscal year. The fiscal deficit — or the difference between the amount of money the government pulled from revenue and grants and the amount which it spends on wages, salaries, interest charges and capital programmes — was however running at $52.1 billion as at the end of July, $3.1 billion more than the $49 billion budgeted for.
Faced with a massive increase in the fiscal deficit target to $106.4 billion or 9 per cent of GDP, Minister Shaw has targeted doctors and nurses as well as professionals who work privately and have not been pumping anything in the government’s coffers.
Companies earning more than $3 million per annum would also be given the same treatment by the taxman. Registered taxpayers operating a business but who have not filed or paid income taxes during the last five years and with whom the tax authorities have made contact would also be taxed even if they meet the October 31 deadline.
The list includes a group of 200,000 professionals, entertainers and other self-employed persons who are earning income but have not been paying taxes to the cash-strapped government, which has had to revise the fiscal deficit four times since taking office in order to maintain its spending appetite.
http://www.sunheraldja.com/2009/09/tax-axe-coming/
The long arm of the tax man is expected to reach restaurant and cook shop operators, bars and grocery shop operators, dance and party promoters, emcees, athletes, footballers and even teachers teaching extra lessons will have to account or they will have to pay all back taxes for the past six years.
Shaw, who needs to pull in an additional $25 billion in borrowings and taxes in order to meet the new fiscal deficit target of 9 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) agreed to with International Monetary Fund (IMF), also plans to rope in all haulage contractors and delivery truck drivers who have been earning more than the income tax threshold and not paying taxes, if they do not comply with the October 31 voluntary compliance deadline.
The government’s expenditure budget is now $561.4 billion, $6.38 billion more than the $550 billion presented in April.
The minister’s revenue budget of $326 billion was however running at $9.7 billion below the $95 billion programmed during the period April to July of this fiscal year. The fiscal deficit — or the difference between the amount of money the government pulled from revenue and grants and the amount which it spends on wages, salaries, interest charges and capital programmes — was however running at $52.1 billion as at the end of July, $3.1 billion more than the $49 billion budgeted for.
Faced with a massive increase in the fiscal deficit target to $106.4 billion or 9 per cent of GDP, Minister Shaw has targeted doctors and nurses as well as professionals who work privately and have not been pumping anything in the government’s coffers.
Companies earning more than $3 million per annum would also be given the same treatment by the taxman. Registered taxpayers operating a business but who have not filed or paid income taxes during the last five years and with whom the tax authorities have made contact would also be taxed even if they meet the October 31 deadline.
The list includes a group of 200,000 professionals, entertainers and other self-employed persons who are earning income but have not been paying taxes to the cash-strapped government, which has had to revise the fiscal deficit four times since taking office in order to maintain its spending appetite.
http://www.sunheraldja.com/2009/09/tax-axe-coming/
Comment