Straughn: Thousands seek to clear tax arrears

More than 3 000 tax defaulters have so far applied to take advantage of options to settle their arrears, Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn has revealed, as the government moves to cash in a $1.8 billion bill.

In an interview on Friday, he told Barbados TODAY that just over 65 per cent of applications have been approved.

“Since 2021, under this new arrangement, 3 201 applications have been made by Barbadians to the Ministry of Finance, outlining their options for settling tax arrears, of which 2 103 have been approved so far,” he said. “I currently have 126 applications to review and approve, which I hope to get through over the weekend whilst the remainder are at various stages in the administrative process.” 

The minister recalled that since coming to office in 2018, the Mia Mottley administration undertook a range of initiatives to collect outstanding tax arrears, including an amnesty, which officially began in 2018.

He explained that people were encouraged to make payment arrangements with the Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA) to become compliant with their tax obligations.

Straughn pointed out that when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, the government recalibrated the settlement arrangements to consider the significant economic fallout that followed. In 2021, BRA issued updated notices to taxpayers indicating that repayments in full over 12 months would receive a 100 per cent waiver of penalties and interests.

He said individuals also had the option to settle between one year and three years and benefit from a 75 per cent waiver of penalties and interest.

Delinquent taxpayers who paid back the government in three to five years would also receive a 50 per cent waiver.

“I urge Barbadians to come forward and get themselves straight with their tax obligations in order for the government to continue improving the provision of public goods and public services,” he suggested.

His comments came amid a call from Opposition Senator Tricia Watson for a tax amnesty. As the upper legislature debated the Corporation Top-Up Tax Bill on Wednesday, she said that in the past two weeks, taxpayers have felt threatened by receiving tax notifications from the BRA.

“They are being asked to file outstanding returns and, of course, they are being told that they may owe penalties for late filing and interests on any taxes that are due,” she said. “Some of these people aren’t tax residents in Barbados, some of them don’t have jobs, some of them are students who may have done some short stint and may have gone back to school and are not currently employed, and some don’t even meet the tax threshold.”

Senator Watson, a lawyer, said accountants are being inundated with clients’ queries of how to contend with the notices.

She said: “We are also having pensioners, for example, ask questions as to why they find that they have to pay taxes on their pension incomes. So, they don’t see why they should be having to pay taxes on their pensions. They also don’t see why they are being asked to file returns because that is a burden on a lot of senior citizens in Barbados. I think that is a valid question. I think an amnesty could be given in relation to all of those notifications that have been sent out as well.

”I think an amnesty would work for everyone,” the attorney contended. “…. I can only imagine that the Barbados Revenue Authority is also inundated with queries coming out of those notifications, and they would like to be unburdened from having to deal with them.” 

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb