THE NEW Central Revenue Authority proposed by Government should become a reality after April 2011. Senator Darcy Boyce, Minister of State (Finance, Investment, Telecommunications and Energy), told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY, “I would expect we would have that in the next fiscal year. I can’t say by a specific month but it will be quite early in the next fiscal year.” The island’s financial year begins April 1, and amalgamating the Income Tax, Value Added Tax, Land Tax and Customs and Excise Tax Departments would produce the Central Revenue Authority, which would also improve auditing across the tax landscape.
“Part of the auditing arrangements which will come with the new Central Revenue Authority is that you will be able to do audits of all the various tax-collecting functions in one, so that you can have better collection thereafter, not only of one specific tax but a number of different taxes because you would have done the work once,” Boyce said. He noted that present legislation governing each tax department needed to be modified and laws to facilitate the actual establishment of the Central Revenue Authority also had to be enacted, “and then we have to ensure that all the bits of legislation fit together properly”, the Government senator said.
“There is going to be the ability to share information between departments. Revenue authorities are governed by confidentiality, so there has to be legislation that allows various commissioners to share information with each other once we have the Central Revenue Authority up and going,” Boyce added. Boyce spoke after delivering the feature address at the opening of the 21st general assembly and technical conference of the Caribbean Organisation of Tax Administrators, at the Accra Beach Hotel and Resort, Christ Church. (SR)
