Senate passes Revenue Admin Amendment Act

The Senate last Friday passed the Revenue Administration (Amendment) Act.

The bill seeks to, among other things, significantly improve the State's revenue collection process by empowering the commissioner general of Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) with the authority to mandate the provision of information, deemed useful and useable, in a format appropriate for and relevant to respective sectors.

It will also facilitate more efficient and effective execution of the powers of investigation, audit, assessment collection, and enforcement by TAJ, and improve the quality and usefulness of information furnished periodically to the agency by various stakeholders.

Restricted

In piloting the legislation, Justice Minister Mark Golding indicated that the revenue authorities are currently severely restricted in their efforts to promote compliance in all sectors of the economy. This, due to the inability to collect and use the information necessary to identify, register, audit, and assess specific taxpayers.

"Lack of information is acknowledged to be the greatest obstacle to tax collection, with some known sources of information being sealed off by law itself. Undetectable income-generating activities encourage high rates of delinquency," Senator Golding said.

He also noted that the legislation will advance the information-gathering provisions of Jamaica's tax laws into the 21st century.

The act also intends to enable more effective exchange of information with Jamaica's treaty partners under the various double-taxation agreements, and ensure that the information provided will enable the country to meet the international standards for transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes.

The Revenue Administration (Amendment) Act is one of 12 pieces legislations that are structural benchmarks under the International Monetary Fund's four-year Extended Fund Facility arrangement with the government programme.

The bill was passed in the House of Representatives on June 19.