Property Tax Reform Facts Provided To Citizens of Trinidad and Tobago. (Sort of)

The property tax reform (2009) in Trinidad and Tobago has received a lot of attention in the media, and to date there hasn't been a lot of information on it. Instead of citing specific articles, I'll just point to the smorgasbord available through Google. And while it has been very interesting to watch politicians shuffle around (Kamla Persad-Bissessar in particular) when it comes to who is doing what, the fact is that the general public hasn't gotten that much information about the topic.

All around Trinidad and Tobago this week, people have received informational brochures regarding property taxes in Trinidad and Tobago. There are 6 pages to it, not including the covers, and it seems well organized - and dare I say, informational.

Some highlights:

• The property tax reform will be effective as of January 1st, 2010. It's unclear how this will affect people such as myself who pay their land taxes in the 6th month of the year - whether we will pay for half the year based on the new rate, or what have you.
• It is claimed that the new tax will be more equitable across Trinidad and Tobago.
• The Annual Taxable Value (ATV) is the value of the property used to calculate the property tax, and the ATV will be decided by the 'qualified professionals at the Valuation Division of the Ministry of Finance'. Buildings will be taxed based on the category of the property (executive, modern, standard, substandard and shack), the size of the property and the location of the property. The latter seems a bit tongue in cheek when it comes to the reform being 'more equitable', since part of the problem the reform claims to address is the variance in property tax between various areas.
• The Annual Rental Value (ARV) is the monthly rental value of a property multiplied by 12 months. All property in Trinidad and Tobago has a rental value.
• The tax is done in tiers based on Town and Country zoning - from highest to lowest, we have Industrial (6%), Commercial (5%), Residential (3%) and Agricultural (1%). Thus, you take the applicable tax rate for the property and multiply it by the ATV - and the ATV is figured out by the Valuation Division of the Ministry of Finance (see above).
• Properties will be assessed by their dominant use- if you run a small business from home, the dominant tax rate will be residential. That means you pay a 3% rate instead of a 5% rate.
• No one is exempt from the property tax. It includes people in government housing.
• Examples are provided for different sorts of taxes, but the valuations of properties is really the big question mark. I'll get into that in a follow up post.

As someone who owns a fair amount of land, I am formulating some opinions on this - I'll be collecting some facts over the next week and will do a follow up post based on my own personal experience and what I expect to happen with the property tax reform.

At this point, I'm not against the theory - but I think it's impractical for the government to try to do. Maybe they will prove me wrong. Maybe they will prove me right.