News Briefs

Government to add 7% tax on online purchases

1 Mins read

In his mid-year review of the new government’s financial situation, Minister of Finance Colm Imbert noted…

Madam Speaker, when this Government presented the 2016 budget in October 2015, we had no illusions that we were in a difficult economic situation caused by radical changes in global energy markets, which led to a collapse of oil prices in 2015, and a consequent drastic reduction in revenues from petroleum. This difficult revenue situation was compounded by five years of mismanagement of our finances.

To that end, he has announced that among other austerity measures, in September, 2016, the Government will implement a seven per cent tax on goods purchased online using a credit card,,,

 i) A levy of 7% on online purchases of goods and services through the Internet from retail companies resident overseas, that are not subject to taxation in Trinidad and Tobago, such as for example, Dell, Walmart, Staples and Amazon. This is not a new concept and there is well established precedent for a tax of this nature in countries such as the USA, UK and New Zealand.
Online purchases are now a significant area of foreign exchange demand, which is putting a strain on our reserves, since credit card transactions are settled almost immediately. This tax is intended to help manage the increase in foreign exchange outflows from online purchases, reduce revenue leakage and assist local manufacturers and service companies to compete with overseas retailers. This measure is scheduled to take effect by September 2016 and it will require discussions with the banks and credit card companies to make it work.

🤞 Get connected!

A once weekly email notification of new stories on TechNewsTT. Just that. No spam.

Possible UI Glitch. Click top right corner to dismiss 👉

Get Connected!

A once weekly email notification of new stories on TechNewsTT.

Just that. No spam.

Related posts
FeaturedNews Briefs

Ministry of Digital Transformation presents D'Hub proof of concept awards to developers

2 Mins read
The developers will compete to deliver a viable proof of concept solution for five different challenges and each selected development team received a $50,000 award to proceed with their work.
Press Releases

TSTT's e-Tender system ready for Public Procurement Act

2 Mins read
e-Tender is presently the most used e-Procurement platform deployed across Trinidad and Tobago.
BitDepthFeatured

Why public sector transformation fails

4 Mins read
There was little expectation of job satisfaction in the public service, and advancement was measured in decades but the civil service was a lifelong career.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Share your perspective in the comments!x
()
x