The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Around 200 persons have taken advantage of the Government’s real property tax (RPT) amnesty to-date, a Cabinet Minister has disclosed.

Following Prime Minister Perry Christie’s 2013-2014 Budget communication, Michael Halkitis, minister of state for finance, said that according to the latest figures he had received, at least 200 individuals had come forward and registered their properties.

“We are very encouraged. We have had at least 200 individuals come forward and register their properties,” he said. “We believe that as we go closer to the deadline of June 30, we will see some acceleration in those individuals going forward.

“We are encouraged that we are able to get several hundred new properties on the roll, and so going forward to collect from those which we were previously not collecting from.”

Mr Halkitis added: “We are not satisfied with the rolls. We believe that there might be a third of what should be on the roll, are not on the roll. It’s an extensive problem and this amnesty we believe is a good programme to get people to come forward voluntarily. As we go forward we will be implementing several strategies to encourage people to come forward.”

The four strands of the real property tax (RPT) amnesty programme are:

• To encourage self-registration of residential properties valued at more than the $250,000 exemption threshold, and commercial properties that had never received a real property tax bill, those who register with the Chief Valuation Officer by June 30, 2013, will not be charged any back taxes.

• To ensure registered property owners who were in arrears became current, the Government will waive 50 per cent of the sum owed - assessment and surcharges - by those who are three years or less behind if payment is made by end-June 2013.

• For those who are more than three years in arrears on their real property tax payments, the Government will waive 100 per cent of the penalty charge only if payment is made by December 31, 2013.

• Apart from the 5 per cent rebate for residential homeowners who are current, the Government is also moving to tackle complaints about people receiving increased billings of between 200-500 per cent.

The Government estimates it is only collecting half the real property tax revenues due to it annually, given that 35,000 properties which should have been assessed during the 2011 tax year were not covered or registered in the Government’s database.

Of the 88,000 properties in the database, some 22,000 are benefiting from the $250,000 exemption, while close to 50 per cent of those liable to pay real property tax were not receiving their bills.