People Don’t See the Need to Pay Property Tax Says Chief Valuation Officer

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Published on Friday, 15 June 2012 14:28

Written by Jacque Bryan

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The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) is trying to change people’s attitude towards Property Tax in an effort to address a major challenge which, according to the Chief Valuation Officer, Norvin Rawlins, is that people did not feel they needed to pay it.

Speaking to WINN this week, Mr. Rawlins said, “I’m just seeing that people basically do not think they need to pay Property Tax, that’s just it.  We’re efficient, we do our job, we measure properties, we assess them at the correct value based on evidence from [the] market, from mortgages, from contractors….but there’s no major challenge other than the fact that people don’t think they should pay for dirt and so that’s basically it.”

The IRD recently launched its Mobile Tax Information Initiative which is set up at different locations around the island.  The purpose is to sensitive the public on the Property Tax.  The mobile initiative allows for persons to pay their bills on site once the correct name of the owner of the property is presented and persons have the option of paying by cash or check.   The IRD is taking the initiative to Cayon on Saturday 16, June and will be outside Maynard's Park from 9am-2pm.  

“[A] couple years ago we used to be on the radio telling persons of when the tax was due.  At that time it was two halves, but this year we found that because last year we didn’t collect as much as we thought we would have we decided we would market it because persons often say they don’t know what it is, they don’t understand the tax and so we want to make them aware and sensitize them about the property tax....”

The Department hopes to meet its target or even surpass it this year.  Mr. Rawlins said that apart from the financial goal the bigger picture was the sensitization aspect of the exercise. “We don’t want the arrears to get higher so we’re encouraging persons to come in and pay the tax and also telling them about the services that their getting from such [a] tax.”

Information from the IRD states that money collected for Property Tax is then used to service the social needs of the citizens and residents of the community in the form or road building and repair, schools, hospitals and clinics, fire and police services and many other programs.

Mr. Rawlins said that the department had a system being used to tackle the problem of arrears.  Personnel from the collection section of the IRD contact individuals who have not paid for a long time and assist them with setting up payment plans to settle their balances, in some cases interest free.

Last year about $5 million dollars was collected for Property Tax according to Mr. Rawlins, however, at the time he was unable to say how much money was still outstanding.

“Right now I do not have such information….because right now we’re in the process of doing some cleaning up and you know getting our system straight to kinda give a better idea of how much is outstanding so that’s not available.”

The Property Tax should be paid on or before June 30th or the amount owed will attract 1% interest per month for late payment.  

“The month for property tax is actually from June 1st to June 30th so basically there’s a grace period between there to pay the property tax interest free,” the Chief Valuation Officer told WINN.  Additionally, as the tax year starts in January persons also have from January 1st up until June 30th to pay the tax in several installments or in full.

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