With official concerns over the evasion of taxes and indifference to the payment of National Insurance Scheme (NIS) contributions by many emerging business enterprises having become an issue of some measure of official concern, Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce Oneidge Walrond last Friday used the forum of the Small Business Bureau (SBB) Small Business awards ceremony to remind business owners of their obligation to comply with the laws of the land through their payment of taxes and National Insurance Scheme (NIS) contributions.
In the face of the proliferation, in recent years, of small businesses in several economic sectors, the authorities have become increasingly challenged in their efforts to ensure that tax and NIS payment obligations are met.
While the authorities have, over time, sought increasingly to link the facilitation of transactions important to the smooth running of small businesses to their compliance with the laws governing the payment of taxes and NIS contributions, that appears not to have done a great deal to reduce the level of delinquency.
The Minister reportedly said in her address that since her accession to office she had noted that many small businesses do not comply with the laws pertaining to the honouring of these obligations either through ignorance or neglect. “I am aware that both agencies [GRA and NIS] have supportive systems to guide you along. I don’t want you to see taxes as a bad thing or burdensome. See it as part of your fiduciary responsibility to the state, one that allows you to give back so others can also benefit from this fund. You paying taxes fulfils your half of a symbiotic partnership with the state,” she said.
GRA and NIS, themselves, have been cited by employers and contributors for not sufficiently facilitating the expeditious compliance with the law. While, however, there appears to have been, over time, legitimate complaints about the quality of service provided by the two state institutions, manifest evidence of evasion and other forms of delinquency have been cited, with some businesses moving to liquidation when the burden of their fiduciary responsibility becomes too onerous.
Less than a year ago, after it seemed that mechanisms had been put in place for the allocation of 20% of state contracts to small businesses, the initiative was suddenly set aside reportedly on account of the failure up to that time to satisfy a key prerequisite, that is, the bona fides of small businesses in matters relating to their payment of both NIS contributions and income taxes. Since then, there has been no official announcement regarding a time frame for the implementation of the 20% state contract allocation, despite a recent law amendment to facilitate the mechanism.
