Junior Exchange Voting Share Capital Threshold Moves to $750 Million

The Income Tax Act will be amended to increase the maximum participating voting share capital of companies listed on the Junior Stock Exchange from $500 million to $750 million.

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, said the measures are in an effort to further facilitate growth of the micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) sector.

“The industry has lobbied for this for quite a number of years, and we have listened, and today we are signalling support and moving that threshold,” he said.

The Minister was opening the 2024/25 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on March 12.

He said that the Income Tax Act will also be amended to clarify that trust and corporate services providers will continue to be assessed Corporate Income Tax at the rate of 25 per cent.

The adjustment is to address an increase in rate when the International Corporate and Trust Providers Act of 2017 was amended in 2021 in keeping with Jamaica’s anti-money laundering obligations.

“One of the amendments had that the trust and corporate service providers now ought to be regulated by the Financial Services Commission, and an unintended consequence of that was that their Corporate Income Tax rate went up from 25 per cent to 33 and a third per cent. This was not the policy intent,” Dr. Clarke explained.

This measure is to take effect in the year of assessment 2023, and it is expected to be revenue-neutral.