Tax reform committee’s work winding up

Georgetown, GINA, March 27, 2014

President Donald Ramotar at a press conference today said that the committee that was established in late 2011 to review Guyana’s tax system is in the process of concluding its work. The committee has been working closely with experts from an overseas university.

The Head of State said that the work of this body will advise the Government on the way forward with regards to the tax system.

“Tax is the lifeblood of government revenue so it has to be handled very carefully and not in a piecemeal manner,” he said.

The Government had committed to a holistic review of the tax regime including an appraisal of the Value Added Tax (VAT). In fact, it was listed for attention in the PPP/C’s 2011 manifesto.

The main objective of this review is to examine options for making the tax system more family friendly, including through personal income tax relief, conditional on the number of dependent children.

In short, it is a taxation system that provides enough resources to address the concerns of poor people rather than acting as a disincentive to them.

With regards to salary increase for public servants, the President said that this will be based on the deliberations between the unions and the Government. Moreover, he said that the income tax threshold which currently stands at $50,000 is at a fairly good position at this point