Other measures proposed in the new tax bills include:
(1) Minister may prescribe interest rate for arrears of tax.
The minister may, by order published in the Gazette, subject to negative resolution of the House of Representatives, prescribe the interest rate payable in respect of arrears of tax for the first six months of each calendar year and the second six months of each calendar year respectively;
(2) Application of payments
If a payment is made on account of any amount owed by a tax debtor to the commissioner general or, as the case may be, to the commissioner of Customs, the payment shall be applied first, to any interest that is payable; secondly, to any penalty that is payable; thirdly, to any surcharge that is payable; and, finally, to any principal amount that is payable.
(3) Garnishment
Where the commissioner knows or suspects that a person – (a) holds, controls or has custody of moneys belonging to a tax debtor; or is, or will be within one year, liable to make a payment to a tax debtor, the commissioner general may, in writing, require the person to pay forthwith, where the monies are immediately payable, and in any other case as and when the moneys become payable, the moneys otherwise payable to the tax debtor in whole or in part to the commissioner general on account of an amount owed by the tax debtor to the commissioner general.
(4) Recovery of deduction or set-off
Where an amount owed by a tax debtor has not been paid, the commissioner general may require the retention by way of deduction or set-off of such amount as the commissioner general may specify, out of any amount that may become payable to the tax debtor by the Government of Jamaica, and the commissioner general may require that the amount deducted or set-off be paid to the commissioner general to be applied in reduction of the amount owed by the tax debtor to the commissioner general.
(5) Publication of list of debtors
The commissioner may publish a list of debtors in respect of whom certificates have been registered in the Supreme Court, as well as the amount owed, the name of the debtor and the type of tax that is comprised in the amount owed.
