Finance Minister fails again on Property Tax, says COP

Weatherhead highlighted the uncertainty faced by persons whose property is part residential, part commercial.

“Because of his (Imbert) ignoring commercial properties, many people who have buildings in which they live upstairs and have businesses; commercial property, downstairs; either their own business or rented out, are no clearer on what they have to pay as Property Tax. They are uncertain and anxious...The Finance Minister and Government must do better and come clean with the taxpayers.” Weatherhead queried the issuance of Notices of Assessment before the issuance of Notices of a Valuation, emphasising that assessments “are supposed to be issued after the valuation to determine the Annual Rental Value and Annual Taxable Value of a Residential or Commercial property are completed and the Property Tax to be paid is determined.” The government also came in for criticism regarding for not yet hiring Field Assessors who must first be trained by the Valuation Division before they can do their jobs.

“(This) should have been done long before issuing the Notice of Assessment of Tax to be paid according to the Law. They have put the cart before the horse. 18 months after announcing the introduction of the Property Tax in the Budget Speech in October 2015, they have not gotten even these simple steps right.” Weatherhead also argued that “trying to tax the people to bring about recovery is impossible and only brings hardship. Doing it without providing even the most basic information is much worse.”