Scores try to file on final day

The Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA) has seen an increase in foot traffic at all of its locations today as Barbadians rushed to take advantage of the final hours to file Personal Income Tax (PIT) returns.

Manager Communications & Public Relations at (BRA) Carolyn Williams-Gayle told Barbados TODAY that employees at BRA’s offices have been busy over the past week,  though the heaviest traffic was seen today.

“While persons have been steadily coming throughout the course of the past week, today we have seen a surge of persons at the NUPW [National Union of Public Workers] headquarters where we have a clinic going on. We have also seen a surge of persons at our other locations. There are no further extensions for personal Income tax. Today is the last day,” Williams-Gayle said.

At the end of April, the annual deadline, BRA announced that taxpayers have an extra month to file their returns.

On the weekend, the Barbados Revenue (BRA) reminded Barbadians that on Monday, July 31, it will conclude its series of tax clinics held at the NUPW Dalkeith Road, headquarters, bringing to a close the extended filing and payment deadline for 2020 Personal Income Tax (PIT) returns. The clinics form part of the authority’s ongoing efforts to assist taxpayers through education and outreach.

However, Williams-Gayle explained that it is believed that in addition to taxpayers going to BRA’s offices to conduct business for personal income tax returns, persons claiming for Reversed Tax Credits also joined today’s lines although the deadline for RTC is December 31, 2021.

“But people have the opportunity to file online. I can’t tell you whether all the people at our locations are for PIT. There can be there for a number of reasons because it is the end of the month and you also have people coming in to make payments for their vehicle registration because vehicle registration has gone back to over-the-counter,” she said.

The Communications Manager explained that BRA continued to face the challenge of third party providers not uploading information preventing taxpayers from being able to file accurately to receive an accurate return.

She said: “They are missing information because some third party providers have not uploaded the information on, or have not uploaded all of their information.”
(anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)