Dionne Rose, Business Reporter

Self-employed persons form a queue at the Island Revenue Office, King Street, Kingston, on Monday, March 17. This group of taxpayers were found to be the most compliant in filing their returns, the Tax Department said on Tuesday. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

Jamaican companies and individuals coughed up more than $14 billion of income tax at mid-March, a figure that the Tax Administration Services Department (TASD) is reporting as a substantial improvement on returns filed a year ago.

The tax department collected 38 per cent or $2.72 billion more at the March 17 deadline, according to Meris Haughton, head of communications and director of the TASD's Public Relations Unit.

But yesterday the agency also warned that it would be moving swiftly to identify those who had failed to file their returns, and would be tracking them by computer.

Haughton was unable to give a reading on the numbers, but said the TASD would be using its recently updated compliance system to identify such businesses.

Once identified, they would be given 14 days to comply.

"This not an extension," Haughton insisted. "Even though it may look like an extension, even when they file that return, interest is calculated on the days missing, so it is not they are getting a free extension."

This is the first time, the agency said, it would be using its automated system to generate estimated income tax assessments, based on information available from previous returns.

Collections from the compliant this year were split $12.26 billion for companies and $2.18 billion for self-employed persons - a combined $14.4 billion. The year before, employers accounted for $10.34 billion and the self-employed, $1.38 billion.

Smaller tax base more compliant

The self-employed, though a smaller tax base, were found to be more compliant than companies, largely because of the performance of small businesses, Haughton told Wednesday Business.

"The larger companies tend to be compliant, which is where you get your major tax amount," said the TASD director.

"But when you look at companies versus self-employed, you tend to find that the compliance rate for companies is less."

Haughton has attributed the overall improvement in collections to the agency's intensive two-month public education campaign as well as the agency's islandwide Special Taxpayer Service Programme which gave hands-on assistance to small business operators.

"We had a six-week programme where we actually had officers from Tax Administration assisting small business operators to complete their returns," she said.

"They would bring in their documentation, we would go through it with them and do the necessary calculations and they would file the returns and make the necessary payments."

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com