THE Royal by rex resorts this week played host to tax experts from the Caribbean, Canada, the UK and the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The five-day annual seminar of the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) ended yesterday at the hotel attended by tax administrators from throughout the Caribbean. It was the first meeting to be held in the newly refurbished Conference Room of the Royal by rex resorts.
Tax Administration Advisor at CARTAC, StephaneSchlotterbeck, said Saint Lucia was chosen as the venue for this year’s seminar because CARTAC is currently working with the Government of Saint Lucia in revising and reforming the island’s Property Tax Regime. This initiative came out of a study of the Taxation Systems of the ECCU Member Countries undertaken by the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund.
Schlotterbeck noted that due to declining collection of international trade taxes, Caribbean countries now need to place more emphasis on areas such as Personal Income Tax, Corporate Income Tax and Property Tax, as domestic sources of revenue. He said the introduction of VAT across the OECS is also part of that reform process.
The seminar was intended to facilitate exchange of in-country experiences as well as discuss challenges and issues of Property Taxation, not only in the Caribbean, but using the experiences of more developed countries. Experts were drawn from Canada, the United Kingdom, South Africa and the IMF. Taxation Policy and Legislation, as well as optimizing the use of technology in upgrading and strengthening taxation systems, was high on the agenda of the just concluded seminar.
CARTAC, which is based in Barbados, provides technical assistance in tax administration to its 20 member countries across the region. It has been in existence since 2001.
Saint Lucia’s Assistant Comptroller of Inland Revenue with responsibility for Property Tax, Delores St. Catherine, said this seminar came on the heels of new a Property Tax Regime which was presented to the Minister of Finance in November of 2015 and is currently being reviewed ahead of enactment.
This is part of an impending reform of the Property Tax System in Saint Lucia. The proposal includes legislative reform, a revamp of the organizational structure of the Property Tax Unit, as well as full automation of the System to ensure more efficient monitoring, enforcement and compliance. St. Catherine said the lack of proper enforcement legislation in most countries across the region resulted in loss of revenue from uncollected property taxes amounting to millions of dollars each year.