TAJ collects over $18.6 billion under tax arrears settlement programme
Published:Monday | June 16, 2025 | 11:53 AM
Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) is reporting that its Special Arrears Settlement Programme has so far yielded over $18.6 billion in outstanding taxes.
The programme allowed taxpayers with outstanding debt for selected tax types to pay the arrears without incurring penalties, interest and surcharges.
The programme started in January and was set to end on March 31, but was extended to May 31.
Tax types on which interest, penalty and surcharge (IPS) were waived are Education Tax, Corporate Income Tax, individual income tax, Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Special Consumption Tax, General Consumption Tax, Asset Tax and Partnership Income Tax.
TAJ, in a media release on Monday, stated that under the programme, business persons were relieved of over $6 billion of interest, penalty, and surcharge (IPS).
The waivers and removal from taxpayer accounts so far relate to approximately 60,000 tax periods associated with Assets Tax, Corporate Income Tax, Education Tax, PAYE, Individual Income Tax and Partnership Income Tax.
Eventually, over $30 billion IPS will be removed from taxpayer accounts, lowering the stock of debt on the books of TAJ.
During the period of the programme, TAJ compliance officers made over 50,000 contacts with persons with outstanding balances, resulting in over 10,000 taxpayers indicating a willingness to pay all or part of their principal taxes.
Automatic waiver runs done up to June 5, 2025, resulted in the removal of $5,351,598 in interest, penalty, and surcharge.
TAJ is advising taxpayers that they are carrying out further system configuration to automatically remove charges relating to General Consumption Tax (GCT), Special Consumption Tax (SCT) and PAYE late payment of Income Tax.
It is projected that this will be done by the end of July.
Additional, IPS waiver cases involving manual removal will be administered on an ongoing basis, as they are identified and processed by TAJ's compliance teams.
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