The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

THE Christie administration collected more than $50m in real property tax in 2014, as officials aggressively pursue millions of dollars in tax arrears, State Finance Minister Michael Halkitis said yesterday.

The Department of Inland Revenue at the Ministry of Finance contracted private sector debt collectors to collect $50,178,422.74 last year. The collections mainly happened between July and December. Some of the amount collected was outstanding debt.

However, Mr Halkitis was yesterday unable to say specifically what percentage accounted for uncollected tax debt that has remained on the books since 1984.

In 2013, officials collected $56,081,745.64 in real property tax (RPT) and an additional $61,680,119.79 in 2012.

The Tribune revealed in February 2014 that RPT owed on commercial and owner occupied properties, in addition to vacant land throughout the Bahamas, accumulated to an astounding $557,844,377.12 in arrears. It is a debt that successive governments have failed to collect.

Mr Halkitis told The Tribune that while the government was serious about its tax collection efforts, officials remained empathetic to the plight of those who could not keep up with paying RPT.

He said: “We are aggressive. But we know that

coming out of a crisis in 2008, people’s bills went unpaid. In fact, a lot of things went unpaid.

“So the government is actively making arrangements so that people can bring these accounts to date and pay over time.

“In some cases it has been a challenge to track down the unpaid property because with many of the accounts the persons indebted to the government have gone out of the country.

“In other cases people, the account holders, have lawyers that we have made contact with. Once we did that and made it clear that there were serious penalties for not paying these debts the attorneys complied.

“So we are finding that as people learn that this is a new dispensation, they are willing to pay up and comply.”

He said the government was also considering how rates could be adjusted for senior citizens who still reside in their homes that are subject to RPT. He said in cases where they could not, the government was encouraging applications for relief.

Critics of the government’s decision to implement value added tax (VAT) this year have continuously called on the Christie administration to clamp down on the RPT that is owed to the government.

Last year, it was revealed that several high profile people had fallen behind on their RPT.

Shortly before she was appointed as governor general, it was revealed that Dame Marguerite Pindling had outstanding real property taxes amounting to $306,831.73 on her home in western New Providence and had not paid for at least 14 years. After the unpaid debt was made public, The Tribune was reliably informed that full payment had been made.

Early last year it was also revealed that the government’s VAT coordinator, Ishmael Lightbourne, had not paid RPT in more than 20 years.

Some have also called on the government to go after the more than $51m in outstanding taxes owed from closed casinos before it loses the opportunity to do so. The 2012 Auditor General’s Report recommended that a policy decision be made to clear the books of amounts owed by the closed casinos if they were deemed non-collectable.

When asked about this, Mr Halkitis said he had no comment.