Dear Editor,
Jamaica has a long and unproductive history of amnesties, tax measures, draconian tax penalties and a perpetual boogeyman, the tax dodger.
Where are these businesses that seem to exit just behind the next door and are always one step ahead of our tax collctors? We are also to believe that these businesses are wildly profitable in this nearly stagnant economy.
These businesses, with all the tax reforms and tax compliance measures, have managed to flourish, and if they would only become compliant, according to EPOC Communique # 24, the risk of missing future revenue targets would be reduced.
So, it is not our fault; it is those mysterious, highly profitable businesses which no one can seem to find after all these years that their non-compliance has resulted in a missed International Monetary Fund (IMF) target.
The reason we have 0.4 per cent growth instead of 1.7 per cent is drought, not our fault again, and if only inflation were higher, then we would not miss the tax collection targets.
EPOC's Communique # 24 is a farcical collusion with the public sector to blame everyone else for the consistent non-performance in growth.
Let's hear the policies that will grow the Jamaican economy, not the reasons that lack of growth is not our fault nor about the 'boogeyman tax dodger'.
The IMF is just a glorified banker/auditor — a necessary evil — but it expects you to come up with the growth policies.
You can only hide behind the IMF's skirt tail for so long Messrs Byles, Rowe, Wynter, and Phillips.
Time is running out!
Elliot Penn
Kingston 5
Tax dodgers: Myth or reality?
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Jamaica has a long and unproductive history of amnesties, tax measures, draconian tax penalties and a perpetual boogeyman, the tax dodger.
Where are these businesses that seem to exit just behind the next door and are always one step ahead of our tax collctors? We are also to believe that these businesses are wildly profitable in this nearly stagnant economy.
These businesses, with all the tax reforms and tax compliance measures, have managed to flourish, and if they would only become compliant, according to EPOC Communique # 24, the risk of missing future revenue targets would be reduced.
So, it is not our fault; it is those mysterious, highly profitable businesses which no one can seem to find after all these years that their non-compliance has resulted in a missed International Monetary Fund (IMF) target.
The reason we have 0.4 per cent growth instead of 1.7 per cent is drought, not our fault again, and if only inflation were higher, then we would not miss the tax collection targets.
EPOC's Communique # 24 is a farcical collusion with the public sector to blame everyone else for the consistent non-performance in growth.
Let's hear the policies that will grow the Jamaican economy, not the reasons that lack of growth is not our fault nor about the 'boogeyman tax dodger'.
The IMF is just a glorified banker/auditor — a necessary evil — but it expects you to come up with the growth policies.
You can only hide behind the IMF's skirt tail for so long Messrs Byles, Rowe, Wynter, and Phillips.
Time is running out!
Elliot Penn
Kingston 5
Tax dodgers: Myth or reality?
-->