Senator suggests residents over 85 years should live tax free

An Independent Senator is advocating for Barbadians over age 85 not to have to pay any taxes.

Addressing the Senate on Wednesday, Senator Dr Cheslton Brathwaite said: “I believe that a comprehensive policy, going forward, for the aged should include additional privileges, especially for those over 85 years old. I was intrigued that there was the recognition that at 85, you should still be allowed to drive and should have the right to have a licence.

“I was thinking about it and I said to myself, in the development of that policy for the aged, maybe we will come to a place and a time when we may even decide that people over 85 years old should not pay any taxes any longer,” he added as he contributed to debate on the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill, 2023, in the Upper House.

“After all, if you live long enough to be 85, let’s assume that you would have started to work at 15, you would have been paying taxes for 70 years; that is a long time to pay taxes. By the time you reach 85, you should have the privilege and the honour of not paying taxes any longer. If you start [to work] at 25, of course, you would have been paying taxes for 60 years; that is a lot of time”.

The independent senator argued that giving senior citizens “little privileges”, such as not paying taxes after age 85, would allow them to have additional disposable income to spend as they saw fit.

Dr Brathwaite said Barbados must embrace the elderly, giving them the opportunity to remain active, productive citizens of the nation.

“So that you can allow the older people to have some income that they can buy a gift for their grandchildren or their great-grandchildren or even help to pay for their education. And this, of course, would contribute to the youth of the nation also, if the older people had a little bit more money in their pockets to spend on such interesting things as education,” he said.
(AH)