$449 million in VAT bonds processed

FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert said on Tuesday that to date, $449,335,000 in Value Added Tax (VAT) bonds have been processed by the Inland Revenue Division.

At a virtual news conference, Imbert said, "Almost $450 million in VAT bonds have already been processed and printed for delivery to various corporate entities as of this morning."

He continued, "I just want to make it crystal clear that nobody's VAT bonds are being withheld because they may owe small amounts of tax. That's a misunderstanding that was put in the system by a private accounting firm."

The bonds, he said, are fully encashable, fully tradeable at all commercial banks at a rate of 3.3 per cent, over a three-year period. "The banks have assured us at finance, that they would cash in these bonds at 100 cents on the dollar."

Imbert said he needed to make this statement in response to an article in the Trinidad Guardian in which a businessman complained about not receiving his VAT refunds. Imbert said that this situation was caused by an erroneous circular issued by a local accounting firm, which omitted an important detail in a ministry release on VAT refunds that was issued last month.

Imbert said the detail omitted was "any liabilities that remain outstanding would be deducted from the amount due before bonds are issued." He explained this does not mean that "until you pay all your taxes, you will not get any vat refunds."

Urging all accounting firms to report verbatim, all statements from the ministry and not "cut and paste," Imbert said if someone was owed a particular sum in VAT refunds, but has certain tax liabilities, those liabilities will be "deducted from the VAT bonds before the amount is calculated to which you are entitled to."

Imbert recalled that in last year's budget, Government committed to pay a substantial amount of VAT refunds by way of bonds and these bonds would be paid out in 2020.