Afra Raymond was interviewed on Tuesday 28th March 2017 on SKY 99.5 FM on the impending Property Tax by Jessie-May Ventour, Eddison Carr and Dr Wayne Haywood. There is a lot of misleading and uninformed talk on the Property Tax at the moment, so this is intended as a corrective…
Programme Date: 28 March 2017
Programme length: 00:41:04
AfraRaymond.net 
I have some questions:
Case #1:
Change of Title
The owners of the property have died,the land is rented land,all of the bills are in the name of the deceased. There is no titled successor however,there are occupants living on the property.Who is liable to pay property tax here where there has been no official change of title for the property?
Case #2
Deed of comfort
A deed of comfort is in the hand of the occupiers of a plot of land,no final settlement has transpired between the government and the occupiers for ownership of the property.
Who is liable to pay property tax here?
Case #3
HDC and mortgage
If someone is paying for an HDC house and has not completed payment which indicates that the property has not yet changed hands.Who is responsible to pay property tax here?
Case #4
If the owner of the property is on social welfare or is a pensioner would this person be liable to pay property tax?
With reference to section 23 Deferral Of Tax of the Property Act ,are all pensioners exempted or just the ones who apply?
If most pensioners apply for deferrals how many remaining taxable properties would exist in T&T?I am asking this on the perceived grounds that most young people 50 years and under are not property owners.
Case #6
The Residential tax is stated as 3% whereas the commercial tax is 5%
When registering a business small business owners may put their home address as the business address,however ,the actual business may be set up somewhere else in some town.Would the residents in such a case be liable to pay commercial tax?
What deems a plot of land commercial property or residential property for taxable purposes?
Is it the fact that a registered business names it as the business location?Or the fact that a business is actually physically set up?If the owner of the business registered to the property is not the owner of the property,who absorbs the tax liability if any?
Case #5
What system is in place to fairly assess the future improvement or the depreciation of a property, after the initial tax assessment is made in a timely manner?
Hello Camille,
Most of the questions you raised are the sort of detailed matters which would be addressed in the Regulations to the law. That said, I can answer a few of these – #3 the case of the mortgagor is one which would have to be that the homeowner is billed even while they were still repaying their mortgage…any other arrangement would mean that lenders would have to pay property tax on mortgaged properties until the loans were repaid. #6 the case of the commercial/residential use the position would, I assume, be rooted in the previous declaration and the common law principle of a wrongdoer not being allowed to benefit from their lawbreaking…for example someone who had registered a business at an address might be seeking to recant and have the property registered as residential to obtain a lower assessment…it is my view that the law should not permit such moves, that would be good law and in keeping with S12 (4) of the Land Acquisition Act 1994. #5 Future improvements or depreciations will be assessed upon notification by the field assessors.
Thanks for joining-in, Camille.
Afra
Thank-you for the response! 🙂
Hello Afra,
Some time ago, The MOFE said in a television interview in response to a question and I quote ” How many times do I have to say that pensioners will be exempt from Property Tax.” Given the scenario you have outlined on exemptions, this seems impractical. By example, What if a pensioner owns several properties?
Can you please comment on whether pensioners will be exempt from property tax.