No Increase in Property Tax for 2015/16

Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. the Hon. Peter Phillips, says there will be no increase in property tax rates in the next fiscal year.

Speaking in the House of Representatives, on February 10, the Minister addressed speculation in the media about the ‘supposed’ intentions of the government to increase property taxes.

Dr. Phillips also informed the Lower House that property tax notices will be sent to individual land owners in the next few weeks informing of the charges for the next fiscal year.

“Tax payers are being urged to make payments early, particularly as property tax is an important revenue source for local government operations, such as garbage collection and  street lights,” he said.

The  Minister noted that a recent analysis of the performance of property taxes  indicated that the compliance rate for the financial year 2013/14 was approximately 45 per cent, with the 2014/15 compliance rate projected at 40 per cent.  He pointed out that  compliance rate measures actual tax collected relative to total tax payable.

“For the financial year 2013/14 the collection rate was 80 per cent. The projected collection rate for the current fiscal year 2014/15 is 75 per cent,” Dr. Phillips said, while explaining that collection rate measures the actual tax collected, relative to target, the assumption being that not all taxes due will be collected.

The Minister said it is important to note that the highest rates of collections were found in the highest valued properties and the lowest valued properties had the lowest rate of collections.

He  added that Portmore had the highest collection rate of 98.4 per cent, with St. Elizabeth having the lowest collection rate of 64 per cent.