MANDEVILLE, Manchester — The long-awaited new location for the Mandeville Tax Office is expected to be opened for individuals requiring in-person services by year end.

However, people in St Elizabeth will have to continue using the crammed Santa Cruz Tax Office as there is no timeline for the rebuilding of the Black River Tax Office, which was damaged by Hurricane Melissa last October.

Finance Minister Fayval Williams made the disclosure in response to questions posed by the
Jamaica Observer regarding the tax offices in Mandeville, Black River, and Santa Cruz as well as appeals for a collectorate in Junction, St Elizabeth.

“The commissioner of taxes [Ainsley Powell] has advised that he would like to have this [Mandeville Tax Office] open at the end of this year, but you know how construction works [can be]. Many times there are slippages in terms of the timelines, but we do have a timeline in mind,” she said last Friday on the sidelines of the ceremony for the official opening of the $760-million Christiana Tax Office at Struan Castle.

“I know that the commissioner of taxes, who has been directing the efforts, he has plans for Black River, but those plans have to dovetail into what the Government is doing as well in terms of the timeline, I don’t think we have that timeline yet in mind, because it is going to be a significant rebuild of that area of Jamaica,” she added.

According to Williams, the Government is exploring how to improve the efficiency of tax offices.

“Rest assured that all across Jamaica we are looking at all the locations of our tax offices to see how well they are working or not working, and we are taking steps to ensure that we get those facilities [developed] so that when customers walk in there they feel comfortable. They don’t have to waste a lot of time and they can get through with the business that they came about,” she said.

The building for the new Mandeville Tax Office is near the intersection of Perth Road and Bloomfield, north of the town centre.

In May 2024, Tax Administration Jamaica said in a release that the building in Mandeville at which it is establishing a new revenue service centre (RSC) is owned by Scojampen Limited, the Bank of Nova Scotia pension fund, and that it was being acquired under a lease that would cost the country less than what is currently being paid per square foot in the town.

“The lease is for 24 years with an option to renew,” TAJ said in the news release, adding that the new location would serve Manchester, Clarendon, and St Elizabeth.

The tax authority issued the release after its Commissioner General Powell told Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee on May 28, 2024 that more than $1 billion was being spent to retrofit buildings in Annotto Bay, St Mary, and Manchester to accommodate new RSCs.

Pointing to the Christiana Tax Office, Williams said the facility represents the inclusion of digital features for in-person services.

“This building represents the Government moving in a certain direction in terms of transforming the workplaces where important services like tax compliance, tax collection happen,” she said.

“We are moving in the direction of digitising our services so that customers don’t have to come to physical locations, but there are many people who want that human touch, that interaction. We are about modernising the infrastructure; we are about modernising our services so that it is very convenient for Jamaicans,” she added.