NASSAU, Bahamas — An ex-deputy prime minister yesterday urged the government to develop a US Internal Revenue Service-style mindset to collect taxes “without fear or favour” while slamming proposed new compliance measures, The Tribune reported on Friday, June 11, in an article written by Business Editor Neil Hartnell.
K Peter Turnquest, who was also finance minister until late 2020, told the House of Assembly that proposals to leave business tenants “on the hook” for real property tax debts owed by their landlords “cannot be right and what is intended” by the Minnis administration in legal reforms accompanying the 2021-2022 budget.
Calling on the government to abandon “political expediency” in all tax compliance/enforcement efforts, Mr Turnquest hit out at reforms to the Business Licence Act which will legally mandate that businesses renting space in offices, retail malls and other commercial properties must pay their rent directly to the Department of Inland Revenue – and not their landlord – if the latter is in arrears on real property tax payments.
Business tenants that fail to comply will be denied the renewal of their annual business licence, and the former deputy prime minister blasted the legislative changes for interfering in the contractual relationship between landlords and tenants. He also argued that the move was unnecessary given that the government already possesses multiple means to collect real property arrears.
“This Bill likewise seems to cut against the fairness principle, and like mortgage or rental relief, seeks to interfere in the tenant/landlord relationship. The Bill seems to pass the responsibility for real property tax delinquency to the tenant versus the actual owner of the rental property, under penalty of law,” Mr Turnquest said. “This cannot be right…I recommend a much more palatable collection effort for real property tax, and a legal one, and not one that causes a tenant, a licensee, to be on the hook for the debts of someone else.”
He instead urged the government to enforce the existing real property tax collection laws “with certainty of timelines and commitment”, acknowledging that a mindset and cultural change was required to achieve this.
“The reason the IRS (US Internal Revenue Service) is so successful and feared is because they commit to definite timelines and certainty, and they act without fear and favour,” Mr Turnquest asserted. See complete article in The Tribune at http://www.tribune242.com/news/2021/jun/11/ex-dpm-collect-all-taxes-without-fear-or-favour/
