Residents of Barbados will no longer require tax clearance certificates to conduct official transactions.
Last week, the Senate approved the Barbados Revenue Authority Amendment) Bill, 2018, which abolished the tax clearance certificate. Most Governmental agencies and some financial institutions had required that persons produce a Tax Clearance Certificate from the Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA) in order for certain applications to be considered.
The main reason for obtaining a Tax Clearance Certificate was to ensure that the taxpayers filing is up-to-date & there is no tax due or outstanding. Several CARICOM Countries also require tax compliance (clearance) certificates from corporate entities & sole traders to conduct official business with respective state entities.
Whereas there has been considerable hue and cry about the utility of these tax clearance certificates over many years, Barbados is the first to actually abolish its use.
Tax compliance certificates were introduced in an effort to treat with substantial tax evasion and avoidance which impacted most Caribbean countries and therefore resulted in sub-optimal revenue yields. (CCS)
