Lawyers get more time

Government has softened its stance and given attorneys-at-law additional time to complete land tax transactions.

The news has been welcomed by president of the Barbados Bar Association (BBA) Rosalind Smith-Millar, who said it would allow them to assist those clients who were not able to satisfy the March 31 deadline for land tax transactions to be completed because of circumstances arising out of the national pause brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week the BBA had requested from the Ministry of Finance, Economic Affairs and Investment an extension of the validity of land tax clearance certificates for the current financial year, but the request was denied.

“Following a meeting of the relevant ministries, departments and representatives of the Barbados Bar Association on March 29, 2021, a new temporary protocol was agreed to cover the period March 30 to April 14, 2021.

“While the new protocol does not extend the validity of the land tax certificate, the logistical adjustments create a little elbow room for management of the administrative processes, and will ease the clients who would otherwise have been negatively affected in the absence of the adjustment to the normal processing protocols,” Smith-Millar said today in a press release. She thanked the Prime Minister, Attorney General, and other officials for the facilitation.

The BBA had claimed that during the February 3 to 28 pause, lawyers had been unable to access several government departments because they were closed.

“Although most attorneys-at-law and some government officers were able to work from home during February, access to most of the government departments involved in the transaction process was restricted and documents could not be executed until March as law offices were closed. Access to government departments still continues to be quite restricted due to COVID-19 protocols.

“The experience across the legal profession, since resuming office activity in March, has been characterized by delays which are preventing the timely submission of land transactions to the Land Registry ahead of the March 31, financial year-end Smith-Millar contended at the time. In particular, there have been delays at the Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA) where the introduction and implementation of online and email-based processes have been of no help, and in fact, has slowed down the process,” Smith-Millar said at the time.

“While the members of the BBA appreciate that the COVID-19 protocols require some adjustments in procedures, the BBA does not consider it to be acceptable that a process which formerly took 5 to 15 minutes when done manually now takes several days, weeks and, in some cases, more than a month.”

Smith-Millar said due to those challenges faced, many of the transactions would not have reached the Land Registry by March 31.

She said it would have resulted in their clients having to pay additional monies. (RB)