Tax Department Reports $250 Million Owed by Defaulters, Department Trying to Work with debtors

As we reported earlier this week, the amount owed by tax defaulters is estimated at 250 million dollars.  Longsworth says the department is not rigid and does try to work with businesses by way of payment arrangements.

Michelle Longsworth, Director General, Tax Service: “80% of those taxpayers that were on the defaulters list has come into the department and has made satisfactory arrangement to pay off their debts. The other 20% are going through similar processes of enforcement actions undertake that we are guided through to do by the law. And I will say here that we have many small businesses who come in, they sign a payment arrangement, but we know the economic situation at times and they, for some months, are not able to meet that full amount that they committed to. We can tell you that we have worked with those taxpayers. If they made a commitment to pay 1,000 a month and they come in and say, Director General, for this month, because of whatever reasons, I cannot meet this $1,000 per month. I can only pay you half of that, but I will make up down the road. We work with those taxpayers. So it’s about the commitment that is made and not defaulting on what you have been offered.”

As it relates to the collection of taxes, Longsworth says the manpower currently available is not sufficient.

Michelle Longsworth, Director General, Tax Service: “Human resource in that aspect is never enough, but I can tell you that we have a good team of persons who work in the tax recovery unit who are on a daily basis meeting their targets in collecting these arrears because we do set targets for them to collect. And they work very hard to meet these targets, working with taxpayers. And that’s what I’m saying. We do have taxpayers who really try their best to pay their arrears. And those are the ones that are helping us to reduce the huge arrears that we have. So whilst we can always say we need more resources, I can say that we have a good team of persons who try their best every day to meet the targets that we set for them to collect.”