KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) has announced an auto-renewal feature for the Tax Compliance Certificate (TCC) via its Revenue Administration Information System (RAIS).

The administration said the new feature which has been in operation since February 12 has auto-renewed 271 certificates. It said it is expected to significantly improve compliance and convenience among the business community, as a TCC will now be automatically renewed once several criteria have been met.

According to the TAJ, in this phase of the auto-renewal process, business customers who previously had a multi-purpose TCC, classified as gold, special or open will be eligible. It said the system will check for TCCs one month prior to or after the expiration date to determine if there are no overdue returns or outstanding payments or payment arrangements for taxpayers.

The administration said the following additional criteria must also be met:

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[naviga:li]Customer must not have an overdue tax balance in RAIS[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]Customer should not have ceased operations[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]TCC must not be expired for more than a month.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]Customer must have an active income tax account and have filed relevant Tax returns, such as GCT, payroll taxes and trade licences.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]Customer’s latest final Income tax return must reflect trading activity, except in the case of a charity return (IT12).[/naviga:li]

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The administration said customers who qualify for auto-renewal will be issued a Gold TCC, which is valid for one year, provided that there were no late Returns or payments over the past year. It explained that an Open TCC, of six months duration, will be issued to customers who qualify for auto-renewal but who filed or paid late over the last 12 months. TCC holders with an active, up-to-date payment plan for outstanding payments, will also benefit from the auto-renewal feature by having their certificate auto-renewed for six months, the TAJ said.

However, in the case of partnerships, the administration said a TCC will only be auto-renewed where the partners listed on the Partnership Tax Return (IT03) are compliant and have filed their latest annual and estimated Individual Income Tax Returns S04/S04A. It added that for registered charities, the TCC can only be auto-renewed where the required returns are filed and no payments are outstanding.

The TAJ said a web message will be sent to each customer whose TCC was auto-renewed indicating same.