NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The government is seeing progress in its efforts to collect outstanding revenue, according to Economic Affairs Minister Michael Halkitis, noting that because the Inland Revenue Department has been given “more teeth”, more people have been coming forward voluntarily to settle their outstanding tax property tax arrears.
“Revenue enhancement is going very well,” Halkitis said.
“The reforms regarding property tax where banks are doing the collections we are seeing some progress in that regard. The increased enforcement powers in terms of non-owner occupied property, because we have given more teeth to the department, people have come forward voluntarily to settle their arrears.”
He continued: “We have made amendments to the legislation so that when we collect taxes that are owed it doesn’t go to revenue it goes to a sinking fund assist in retiring the debt. If we are successful in collecting some of these long-standing arrears we see the direct benefit in terms of going into a fund to retire debt.”
Officials at the Department of Inland Revenue back in April lamented what they called the “unacceptable rate of non-compliance” among registered taxpayers over the past several years which has resulted in close to $1 billion in arrears.
It was noted at the time that more than 70 percent of those arrears stem from taxes levied on commercial properties and vacant land owned by non-Bahamians. Back in January, the government revived the Revenue Enhancement Unit to improve its revenue collection efforts.
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