The Minister of Finance, Vishnu Dhanpaul, wishes to advise that the Tax and National Insurance Amnesty introduced by the Finance Act, 2024 (with effect from October 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024) will be extended to May 2, 2025.

In this regard, the necessary Orders to have been published as Legal Notice Nos. are 110, 111, 112, 113, 114 and 116 of 2025.

The public is reminded that the Tax Amnesty covers penalties and interest in relation to the following taxes up to the year of income ending December 31, 2023:

The Minister of Finance, Honourable Colm Imbert, MP, wishes to advise that the time period for the Board of Inland Revenue to issue Notices of Assessment of Property Tax has been extended from June 30, 2024, to July 31, 2024, vide Legal Notice No. 115 of 2024 (see the Legal Notice attached).

This has become necessary to permit the Valuation Division to deliver Notices of Annual Rental Value (ARV) and make appropriate adjustments to ARVs where required and for the Board of Inland Revenue to deliver Revised Notices of Assessment for Property Tax (at the reduced rate of 2%) to residential land owners and occupiers not yet in receipt of same.

Madam Speaker, I am authorized by Cabinet to make the following statement regarding the implementation of Property Tax in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Government has been making steady progress in the implementation of Property Tax. To this end, we are currently at the stage where Notices of Tax Assessments under the Property Tax Act, have been issued to a number of residential landowners and occupiers. This process commenced in February 2024. Prior to this, Notices of Valuation of Land were issued with that process commencing in November 2023.

The Commissioner of Valuations wishes to advise that Notices of Valuation are currently being dispatched to property owners. The Notice of Valuation provides the Annual Rental Value (ARV) of your property.

The Notices of Valuation and computations of ARV were done in accordance with the Valuation of Land Act Chap 58:03 which governs the valuation of land. This Act has been amended by: Act No. 17 of 2009, Act No. 5 of 2018, Act No. 21 of 2022, Legal Notice No. 69 of 2023, Act No. 5 of 2023 and Legal Notice No. 212 of 2023.

The ARV is NOT the amount of Property Tax you have to pay. The ARV is the annual rent which particular land (for example, residential) is likely to attract. You should receive a notice of assessment from the Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) which will state the Annual Taxable Value (ATV) of your property. According to Schedule I of the Property Tax Act Chap. 76:04, the property tax payable is a percentage of the ATV
and is calculated as follows:

The Court of Appeal today handed down its decision on an appeal filed by Devant Maharaj in 2017 in which he was challenging a data collection exercise commenced by the Commissioner of Valuations in 2017. The Court of Appeal’s decision made it clear that nothing in their decision was intended to apply to or affect the present data collection exercise being carried out by the Commissioner of Valuations.