The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Ministry of Finance’s top official yesterday said 99 percent of Business Licence renewal applications were approved “in time” with those outstanding needing to “clarify” questions surrounding their reported turnover.

Simon Wilson, the financial secretary, told reporters yesterday that the enhanced scrutiny and due diligence applied by the Department of Inland Revenue to the annual turnover figures supplied by applicants had helped identify discrepancies suggesting some were under-reporting revenues to evade/avoid a portion of their Business Licence fee payments.

Typically, if you have not received a Business Licence it is because there’s a query, and those businesses got a query from us to say that here is something here we want to clarify,” he explained. “The Department of Inland Revenue has done a tremendous job, and I will say around 99 percent of the Business Licenses which were submitted were processed in time.”

Besides under-declaring turnover, Mr Wilson said renewals could have been delayed because a business did not provide requested information on their location or landlord’s name, or the latter’s real property tax assessment number. The Department of Inland Revenue had warned that licence processing could be delayed if such information was not provided.

When asked if this process had produced results, Mr Wilson said March - which is when all Business Licence fees have to be paid - was a “very good month in terms of overall revenue”. He added: “We have 50,000 businesses registered, and about 40,000 of those businesses report turnover less than $100,000, so they pay zero [fees].

“So that’s all we know. That’s our universe, and we work through our universe to determine instances of non-compliance. People don’t put up a flag and say they are non-compliant. They try to be discreet and non-compliant.”

While it is “unlikely” the Government will seek to garnish, or impose a lien, over a tax dodger’s wages or revenue as the case may be, Mr Wilson warned that the Ministry of Finance and Department of Inland Revenue will be “more forthright” in their approach to non-compliant businesses.

The Department of Inland Revenue’s acting comptroller, Shunda Strachan, has previously said it is within the department’s remit to garnish the rental income of landlords who do not pay real property taxes. She added in January that the agency has already begun to work with commercial banks to ensure outstanding real property taxes are paid on their mortgaged properties.