Golding wants $3m income tax threshold

PNP President Mark Golding is calling for Jamaica's income tax threshold to be doubled to $3 million. 

The threshold is the figure above which workers are required to pay income tax.

The current rate of $1.5 million was set in 2017 and was based on a political promise by the ruling Jamaica Labour Party in the run up to the 2016 general election. 

The PNP had raised questions about the move.

However, speaking at his party's national conference in St Andrew on Sunday, Golding said it's time for a revision, citing inflation.

"It is also time to increase the income tax threshold from $1.5 million to at least $3 million, to take account of the high levels of inflation since it was last reset seven years ago and to give a reasonable buffer for ongoing inflation," he said.  

In May, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke said the Government would consider the issue following a recommendation by think tank Caribbean Policy Research Institute. 

"Whatever we do has to be sustainable. It's something that we will sort of look at and be transparent about the cost implications and how those cost implications could be absorbed," he said. 

The current income tax rate for individuals is 25 per cent where the income is between $1.5 million and $6 million and 30 per cent where the income exceeds $6 million.

Meanwhile, Golding said the next PNP administration will revamp the Employee Share Ownership Plan Act, to give existing owners incentives to facilitate their employees' acquisition of wealth. 

He said he was part of the team led by former Prime Minister Michael Manley that pioneered the legislation in the early 1990s.

He said it is time to make the law user-friendly and to promote its benefits.

"Employee share ownership plans can create great wealth for employees and employers alike, by forging a common economic interest in the success of the business that strongly incentivises high levels of productivity. When joined together with a listing on the stock market, I have seen blue-collar workers become millionaires through their ownership stake, as the business grows and thrives," he said.

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