JMMB Bank, through its small amd medium-sized enterprises (SME) resource centre, recently hosted an online seminar on the fundamentals of tax filing for its small business clients.

The seminar, was part of the bank’s thrust towards financial literacy and inclusion, aimed to equip members of the SME community with the requisite knowledge regarding the ins and outs of tax filing for these businesses.

As part of its strategy, the larger JMMB Group also plans to add value to its small business clients and the wider sector through the provision of the financial partnership, resources, innovative financial solutions and building a network throughout these businesses’ life cycles. It further seeks to provide the necessary support for the growth of SMEs by filling the gaps that currently exist in the financial sector.

According to manager of JMMB’s SME Resource Centre, Shani Duncan Falconer, “These monthly public seminars are designed to encourage SMEs to be more intentional about their business success; take actionable steps, identify best practices and resources and create and/or revise plans so that they can put the necessary infrastructure, policies, systems and expertise in place for their sustainability and growth.”

The seminar, which featured presentations for tax experts of the Tax Administration of Jamaica (TAJ), encouraged entrepreneurs to be tax compliant and keep good records and noted the importance of filing taxes, which experts said could provide benefits including greater access to financing and other technical support for the growth of these businesses.

Antoinette Anderson, tax education officer with the TAJ, said that record- keeping does not have to be a robust and hi-tech system, but one that simply maintains accurate record of the business’ income and expenditures.

“In addition to this being good practice, it is mandatory by law to keep business records for a minimum of six years. This financial management principle is essential, against the background of the self-reporting approach used by the TAJ, whereby burden is placed on the business owner to pay the relevant taxes, based on the business’ profit, where applicable,” she reminded the SME operators who participated in the virtual forum.

These online seminars, which JMMB deems as timely and relevant, comes amid an increase in the number of businesses being registered over the last two years, and strongly reflects the growth potential of the SME sector.

According to data from the Companies Office of Jamaica, over t 12,000 entrepreneurs and investors registered business names last year while 3,935 registered companies. This, as indicated by the statistics, reflects a 12 per cent increase in the registration of business names and a three per cent increase for companies when compared to the prior year which saw a record 100 per cent uptick in the number of companies registered.