GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC:
A 12TH grade student will be part of the Jamaican delegation attending the four-day General Assembly and Technical Conference of the Caribbean Organisation of Tax Administrators (COTA) that gets under way in the Bahamas on July 26.
A statement from the Guyana-based Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat said that Shaneek Amoy Frank, a student of William Knibb Memorial High School in Jamaica, had placed first in a region-wide essay competition on the theme, 'The Human side of Taxation'.
VOLUNTARY TAX COMPLIANCE
The competition, which was jointly organised by the CARICOM Secretariat and COTA, attracted participation from 11 CARICOM countries and was aimed at improving voluntary tax compliance by stimulating interest in taxation and channelling interest and debate from secondary school students.
The CARICOM statement said that regional tax officials have singled out low tax compliance levels in the region, increased tax avoidance and tax evasion as contributory factors for revenue shortfalls and an unstable regional macro environment.
"These conditions were used as the basis for staging the competition."
CRUCIAL FACTORS
"Organisers of the tax essay competition also believe that the human element within tax administration, the tax paying public and government are factors crucial to tax revenue performance," it said.
In addition to the trip to the COTA General Assembly, Amoy Frank will also receive a computer and printer valued at US$1,500, while her school will also be presented with a computer.
The second place winner was Kathie Francis of Sir Arthur Lewis Community College in St. Lucia, while Jessie Boissiere of Washington Archibald High School in St. Kitts-Nevis was adjudged placed third. They will each receive a computer.
