On Saturday, while driving from Oxford, England, to Sheffield – one segment of the journey as I started a tour to participate in discussions on justice issues – a conversation started with my friend, Wally, about taxation systems in Jamaica and England and how they compare. It dawned on me that one should not pay property taxes on one’s primary place of residence. However, if there were additional houses or property then one would pay high property taxes. Furthermore, one should not pay transfer tax on houses below a certain threshold to help the persons at the lower end of the income level. No one should be required to pay property taxes annually on one’s crib.
One should never have to suffer the indignity of being liable to be evicted from one’s home because one cannot pay the property taxes or even have to go and seek a waiver to remain in one’s home. Furthermore, the Government could not be serious about legitimate persons getting a waiver because if it were granted, then where would this additional $5 billion come from?
These thoughts are a result of the Government’s new property tax regime of reducing the rate while using a different evaluation. A few retirees who are members of the Boulevard Baptist Church reported with alarm that their property taxes had increased by 300 per cent and they would be unable to pay it and wanted me to do something. The following day I was sharing at an executive meeting of the Jamaica Council of Churches the plight of pensioners, concerning the scale of increase, only to hear another pastor reveal that he has members who are facing 1,000 per cent increase! We heard the hoteliers saying that a member was facing a 900 per cent increase and they were encouraging their members not to pay.
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