00:00On Tuesday, Finance Minister Colm Imbert sought to give assurances to residential property
00:05owners in Trinidad and Tobago following his announcement on the social media platform
00:09X on Saturday that the deadline for the delivery by the Board of Inland Revenue of property
00:15tax notices to owners has been extended to November 29, 2024, and the deadline for payment
00:21of property tax for 2024 extended to December 20, 2024. In doing so, he revealed that the
00:30Property Tax Act will have to be updated.
00:33I want to repeat that if you don't get your property tax notice, and I am referring to
00:40the one I just spoke about, which has notice of assessment and is signed by the Commissioner
00:45Board of Inland Revenue, if a property owner does not receive this, they will not be subject
00:51to any penalties and interest. And I will have to make some appropriate amendments to
00:57the law to allow those persons to pay at a future date.
01:01During a virtual media conference, the Finance Minister acknowledged the level of concern
01:05among some residential property owners.
01:08At this time, they don't have to pay. Once they don't get it by the 29th of November,
01:13the end of this month. Okay? Because persons are a little worried. They haven't received
01:18a tax assessment notice, or they have an old one with a 3% rate, or they only have
01:23a valuation notice. They're worried. Do not worry.
01:26And the Finance Minister expressed no worry on the government's part with regard to its
01:32estimate for the collection of the property tax from residential property owners.
01:36As we move towards December 20th, we'll get close to this $190 million estimate of the
01:44residential we expect to collect at this time, because we are now online with First
01:49Citizens Bank. So persons who have online bank accounts with First Citizens can now
01:55pay their property tax online. Republic Bank, I am told, will come on stream live this week
02:03by Friday latest.
02:04Minister Inbred said other banks, quote, are going to fall in shortly thereafter, end quote.
02:10Jule Brown, TV6 News.
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