By Rayon Dyer, Gleaner WriterBLACK RIVER:
THE BLACK River branch of the Inland Revenue Department has collected $35.7 million more in taxes than it had projected for the period April 2003 to March 2004.
While the department had estimated that it would collect $89.9 million, actual collection was $125.6 million.
INCREASE IN COLLECTION
According to Nanieta Rogers, senior collector of taxes at the Black River Collectorate, "The massive increase in the collection of taxes in the various categories is really due to our hard work at the office. We took the time out to take the message to the people and tell them of how important it is for them to pay their taxes."
She continued that "We have been to the various communities in the parish, to the service clubs, and some of the schools to sensitise the residents about paying their taxes".
Mrs. Rogers told The Gleaner in a recent interview that while the projection for property tax was $11.89 million, nearly $26 million was collected. For income tax, the projection was $46.49M; the actual collection was $54.23M. While $5 million was projected to be collected as education tax, the collectorate raked in $14.82M. Collections for General Consumption Tax (GCT) stood at $30.68M.
DELINQUENT TAXPAERS
According to Mrs. Rogers, business people are the most delinquent among taxpayers. She said the collectorate had to send them reminder notices on a periodical basis.
In the meanwhile, the collectorate was taking delinquent taxpayers to court on a weekly basis in order to have them to honour their obligations.
"A lot of people are in this parish who are not paying their taxes, which means that our compliance officers have to be inquisitive at times to find these people", Mrs. Rogers said.
"We also do what is called work worth to assess the taxpayers' the ability to pay their taxes. If we find that there are problems with affordability with the residents, we try and work with them by giving them time to pay the taxes to the collectorate."
Mrs. Rogers said the plans to widen the tax net in the area had started and, it includes three surveys visiting targeted areas as well as other outreach programmes.
