Government of Commonwealth of Dominica : EXTENDS TAX AMNESTY TO JANUARY 31, 2021

Government has extended the tax amnesty to January 31, 2021. During the 2020/2021 Budget Address, Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Honourable Roosevelt Skerrit announced a tax amnesty from August 1, 2020 to November 30 2020.

Prime Minister Honourable Roosevelt Skerrit says business owners should take advantage of the extension.

'The waiver of the penalty and the interest is really Government money that we are telling you to hold as your own and the hope is that you will invest it and make good use of it. That is essentially what it is, and what better stimulus can one receive? If you are owing the Government a hundred thousand dollars, fifty of which are interest and penalties, we are essentially telling you to pay fifty and keep fifty, that is what we are doing with this decision,' Prime Minister Skerrit stated.

Prime Minister Skerrit added that directors will also be held accountable for meeting the tax payment deadline.

'In this legislation, the vat legislation, the directors are liable, personally for remitting to the state vat collecting. Not only the company, but the directors are liable. So we could in fact go the private accounts of the directors to get the treasury's money. So this is an extraordinary generous undertaking at a time when every Government in the world, every one of them, is searching everywhere to see where they can get money from,' the Minister for Finance explained.

Prime Minister Skerrit encouraged the business owners to maintain their payments after the extension period.

'So now that we have taken private citizens and companies and placed you on firm ground, please stay on firm ground. Do not get yourself in this situation. So pay, remit. Its better you stay broke than you owing somebody, so remit because it is important for you to remit. Once you remit, your refunds will be able to be made, but if you do not pay, it makes it difficult for the Government to give the refund. I understand that sometimes there are structural issues in different places which create a problem for many businesses, and what we have done we have tried to facilitate people within the public service who find themselves in these situations so I am very happy for this,' Prime Minister Skerrit added.