Category: Land Ownership

Personal Perspective On The Trinidad and Tobago Property Tax Reform

November 20, 2009 by Taran Rampersad

When I went over the facts that were mailed out by the Ministry of Finance regarding Property Tax Reform, I immediately saw a few weak points from my own personal perspective. First, I have to give some background (without giving out too much personal information).

A Practical Look At The Old System

First, some basics. Private property (land, buildings) has an assessment number assigned to it. This is, for some idiotic reason, separate from the deed number associated with the property. To pay land and house taxes, one has to have that assessment number.

Last year, I inherited a sizable portion of land in South Oropouche. Part of it is tenanted, other areas are clear. The land was originally purchased by my grandparents; upon their deaths it was split between their 7 children. Thus the large parcel, which had one assessment number, was issued 7 different assessment numbers for the 7 different parcels of land approximately 10 years ago.

That's pretty straightforward. Where it gets complicated is when one considers the tenanted lands that my father inherited and which were then passed on to me. Thus, when the property was split seven ways with houses on the original parcel, the houses on each parcel were supposed to have been associated with their respective parcels. This was not done. It is unclear to me who was supposed to do what, whether the executors of the Will of my grandmother failed to do their jobs or whether the Board of Inland Revenue (Siparia) failed. {Read more}