The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) in collaboration with Ernst and Young, will be hosting a taxation seminar on September 22, 2010 for individuals involved in the process of tax compliance in Jamaica. The seminar will be in the form of a formal lecture session combined with questions and answers to reinforce the concepts presented in each session.

According to the JSE, the seminar is being held to “enlighten executives and individuals on the procedures for tax-compliance and understand the nuances of other Caribbean tax systems. This will allow for ease when doing business or applying for government contracts.”

The course comes against the background of the country ranking 174 out of 183 countries in the world in respect to the ease of paying taxes, 74th in terms of doing business in the world, and with Jamaican businesses spending 414 hours preparing tax returns compared to 385.2 hours for Latin America and other Caribbean countries according to 2010 “Doing Business” data from the World Bank. “To top it off, Jamaicans pays an average of 51.3 per cent in taxes,” the JSE said.

“Based on these complexities we must understand how best to navigate the Jamaican, and other Caribbean, tax systems, in order to ensure compliance and efficiency,” said the JSE.

The information from the World Bank went on to indicate that a Jamaican medium-sized company pays 72 types of taxes compared to those in Latin America and other parts of the Caribbean that pay 33.

The one day programme, which costs $8000 is targeted at auditors, accountants, financial controllers, corporate secretaries, fund managers, risk analysts, portfolio managers, corporate bankers, investment bankers financial analysts and investigation and fraud officers.

The course covers taxation of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago corporations including corporation tax, business levy and green fund levy; transaction tax and the acquisition of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago stock for non-listed and listed corporations and taxation dividends including types of distributions. Facilitators are Allison Peart and Gregory Hannays, tax partners at Ernst and Young. The seminar will be held at the Terra Nova All-Suite hotel in Kingston. Registration is now taking place.