The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

NEARLY 200 businesses were fined or warned by the Value Added Tax Department yesterday for either failing to register for VAT or submitting late applications, according to Financial Secretary John Rolle.

Mr Rolle, who is also VAT comptroller, said businesses with a declared turnover above the $100,000 VAT registration threshold that submitted applications more than two weeks late will be charged between $250 to $10,000, depending on the size of the business.

“The law required that businesses submit their request for registration one month before January 1. If the business planned to be open on that date and met the threshold they are required to charge VAT,” he told The Tribune.

“The department has been lenient during the transition. The penalties reflect a grace period for all applications that were no more than 16 days late. However, for later submissions there are fines ranging between $250 for small businesses to $10,000 for large businesses. For those who still have not registered, that fine will be in the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands range. There is no excuse to not have registered or to do it so late, the average turn over time from when an application was submitted to the completion of the registration process was about two days. The details of this penalty structure, which is transitional in nature, are being published on the government’s website. It covers late submissions received up to January 15.

“Mandatory registrants applying after January 15 could face higher penalties, on a graduated scale. “

Mr Rolle said the VAT Department remains steadfast in its endeavours to ensure that business are operating in accordance with the VAT Act, rules and regulations.

Last month, Michael Halkitis, minister of state for finance, said some 5,450 VAT registrants had completed the process, 950 more than initially projected.