Tax Court without law library for past 8 years

“In addition to current work in hand, we also have a significant number of cases which await final determination, and this has been principally attributable to a changing bench, as well as, the lack of proper research facilities,” he said.

Gafoor noted, however, that they were able to recruit a well qualified librarian, who was currently working to get the library back on track, and which they hoped would be updated and re-opened for business, before the end of the year.

He was speaking, at the time, at yesterday’s first sitting of the Tax Appeal Board for the Law Term 2014-2015 at the Tax Appeal Court, on Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain.

The chairman also said the closure of the Board of Inland Revenue offices in recent months has caused a number of trials to come to a halt.

“While we understand that there may be perfectly valid reasons for this, we have largely been left to surmise what the ongoing position has been,” he said.

Gafoor said information coming to them was often inconsistent and seemed to vary from one attorney to another.

He said the board viewed this as regrettable, not only from the perspective of a lack of courtesy, but also it seemed that attorneys were informed of lack of progress on the eve, or even the morning of the hearing.

“In our view, this is unacceptable and many law firms and attorneys have been registering their concerns that they are unable to serve documents, and even documents served, do not find their way to the legal department,” he said.

Gafoor said the lack of funding has been a major hindrance to taking forward several initiatives, including upgrading and modernising the law library, installing card access to certain areas of the Court precinct, and security cameras.

Another critical issue, he said, was the relegation of the Tax Appeal Board as a sub-accounting unit of the Industrial Court since 2009.

“We also has severe understaffing in the accounts unit and also the lack of personnel with relevant expertise to assist in the timely payment of salaries,” he said, adding that the Court has been without a strategic plan since 2005.

Gafoor said he was of the view that even though the Tax Appeal Court was a specialist institution, it has not been given the kind of recognition it deserved as a superior court of record.

The court he noted, continues to have a major impact on the economy by virtue of hearing and determining appeals against assessments which involved significant sums of money.

He recalled that there were proceedings that sometimes ended abruptly after several years, with no reason being given to the Court.

Describing taxation as “an individual sacrifice for a collective goal”, Gafoor said the current system of taxation, which was developed at the beginning of the 20th century, the general principles of taxation have not changed, notwithstanding two world wars, one cold war, the collapse of communist regimes, decolonisation. He also cited the massive reduction of economic barriers to international trade and investment.

“In this sense, he added, the international tax system may be aptly analogised as the tortoise and the changing world economy as the hare, but the hare and tortoise race may not end in the way that Aesop imagined,” Gafoor said.

Gafoor said as the post-2008 global financial crisis has been a major watershed in financial affairs that caused renewed focus on regulatory regimes, Trinidad and Tobago has not escaped the effects of such matters.

He cited the number of challenges faced by the Hindu Credit Union and Clico which warranted further investigation through commissions of inquiry.

He noted one area that has not received as much attention, but was inevitably going to be of increasing importance, was taxation of electronic commerce transactions, also known as cybertax, bit tax, or Net tax.

He said the role of Tax Courts was becoming increasingly important in maintaining a level playing field between the tax authorities and the taxpayer, hence the need for this Court to continue to increase its awareness and knowledge of issues affecting the national, regional and international communities.

He noted that the relationship between the tax administration and tax courts, was under-explored. He said tax administration in all countries was bound by the court’s decision on a case, but in most countries was not bound in similar cases, save in common law countries.

“Though this Court is considered to be pre-eminent Court of its kind in the Commonwealth Caribbean, I wish to enter a plea for us to cast off the remaining shackles of the colonial system which has bequeathed to us the present tax system with few modifications.

Other members of the board include Raj Ram Basdeo, Roland N Hosein and Ishri Rampersad.