By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

Shunda Strachan, the Department of Inland Revenue’s acting director, said the agency has collected $95m in real property tax as at February and is confident that they will reach the $195m target.

Speaking at the Office of the Prime Minister’s weekly press briefing yesterday, Ms Strachan said there are more than 42,000 property owners that have tax arrears greater than $500 that the agency has begun to execute its power of sale to collect the $900m in arrears owed by tax delinquents.

“In the 2023/2024 budget estimates for revenue, in particular real property tax, it is estimated that the Department of Inland Revenue should collect just over $195m in this fiscal period. That should represent about 5.9percent of the government’s overall revenue,” said Ms Strachan.

“As of the end of January, the department had collected just about $68m. As of February, we have so far collected just over $95m. So by and large, we have another $100m to go if we are going to meet our target.

“There are 122,158 properties registered on our real property tax, 75,912 of those property owners have a zero balance. We’re at just about $900m in real property tax arrears, and we have more than 42,000 property owners that are in arrears with more than $500.”

She said that the owners of the properties listed for sale have 30 days to pay their tax bill in full and that the agency is no longer offering payment plans or amnesties to those persons.

She said: “Those property owners have been notified, so if they own properties, they’ve been notified, they’ve been given their 30 days notice.

“They have a 30-day span to come in, and to pay off their account. There are no payment plans, there are no more amnesties, all of those things are past and now we’re seeking to recover the full tax amount that is due on those accounts that are listed in the power of sale notice”

She said that the DIR is has shifted to more aggressive means of collections to ensure that the meet their allotted targets.

Ms Strachan said that the DIR also plans to sell liens on properties that are in arrears and the investors that purchase those liens and sell the properties themselves.

She said: “We’re going to meet the target, and that’s really why we’ve moved to other avenues of collection. Previously, we were relying on collection initiatives like calling persons, writing persons. We’re done with amnesties now we’ve had so many of those. We’ve offered persons plans and easy payment plans and the like but now we’ve moved to more aggressive means of collecting, because we will make that target. We expect that we will make it.

“Power sale is just one thing that we’re going to utilise, it’s in the act, it’s always been in the act, it’s nothing new, it’s just that we didn’t use it before.

“We also plan to sell liens, that’s a new thing that’s never been done before. The plan is to put a group of properties that are in arears in a bucket and offer it for sale. You have investors who will be interested in purchasing the lien. In that case that investor who purchases the lien will purchase the rights that we would have had over that property to exercise certain things like the power of sale.”