In Guyana, white collar scandals are never born

Nov 02, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Only Pelé in Brazil stands between him and the crown of being the greatest footballer that ever lived. Lionel Messi of Argentina is as phenomenal as that. Yet as an international superstar, he and his father were charged for tax evasion in Spain. Italy charged its superstar, Pavarotti. There is no need to mention the United States. Unless there can be a justified plea for clemency, the biggest global star of the US will get jail time for tax evasion.
In Guyana, there are court cases for tax evasion, but check to see who the people are – inevitably lower income business folks or the little, self-employed guy. The most infamous case of this was the fellow who was charged by the GRA for non-disclosure from the dances he held in Mahaicony. The GRA lawyer that prosecuted him is now the Registrar of the Caribbean Court of Justice. Leslie Sobers was his lawyer. Up to this day Sobers cannot understand why the gentleman did what he did.
When the case was called, Godwin Maxwell was put on $45,000 bail, which his relatives didn’t have. As the police van came up to escort him to the lock-up, in a paroxysm of fear, he bolted out the court, ran to the Mahaicony River jumped into it and committed suicide. He left behind seven small children. Sobers told me that he thought that the guy got psychologically disoriented when he couldn’t raise bail. For more details on this unbearable tragedy and the reign of Khurshid Sattaur, see my September 1, 2010 column, “An alleged tiny tax evader….”
In Guyana prior to 2015, the assets of every Guyanese were taxed from $7.5 million up. It meant once you had property, stocks, bonds, jewellery, vehicles etc., and they passed $7.5 million, you had to pay property tax. In most countries, the authorities turn a blind eye to the baseline, meaning that they do not normally look for small people who are just over the baseline. For example, a teacher in Guyana may own a property in Charlestown that is worth $10 million, but the tax people would seldom go after him/her.
The tax people usually target huge wealth for property tax requirement. They concentrate on multibillion-dollar classes of people. When the APNU-AFC Coalition Government came into being, the new chairman of the GRA board, Rawle Lucas intoned that property tax contributed “virtually nothing to government revenue,” Those were his words (see “Uncollected billions point to major GRA problem – Lucas, “ Stabroek News, December 28, 2015).
But how could that be? Prior to 2014, citizens were exempted from property tax on the first $7.5 million in assets. For every dollar over $7.5 million, but not exceeding $12.5 million, you paid 0.5 percent in property tax. For every dollar over $12.5 million you paid 0.75 percent.
Something is eerily disconcerting here, and Khurshid Sattaur has to give answers to this nation. Given the outlay I presented before 2014, how could Lucas use the word “virtually nothing?”
Guyana is a small country in terms of population, and in relation to who owns what and who knows who owns what. We have some families that are wealthy compared to any in the big CARICOM states. One such family paid $25 million American for the acquisition of a certain business. Just a diversion, that family demands that its employees pay for the toilet paper and hand-sanitizer in its downtown business. This was brought out in a letter in the Stabroek News by the employees and featured in two columns of mine.
If the GRA had collected property tax before 2014, then given the wealth of many persons in this country, Rawle Lucas could not have made the assertion that he did. Looking at the outlay I presented above, which I got from the GRA’s website, then, had the GRA collected property tax prior to 2014, it would have raked in a few billions, (not hundreds of millions) each year.
Now here is the thing; if the GRA suspects that you were cheating on property tax, it can assess you for the last seven years. Will the GRA Board go in that direction? It has to. It has a moral and legal obligation to. It is simple to compute. If I, as the head of the family-owned businesses from 1995 onwards, have assets worth ten billion dollars (which the GRA can attempt ascertain), and if from 1995 I have not paid property taxes, then GRA can request the seven years assessment.
GRA will not do it, because white collar crime is not recognized in this country.

1 thoughts on “In Guyana, white collar scandals are never born”

19CAGriffith48 November 2, 2016 at 10:56 pm

“Will the GRA Board go in that direction? It has to. It has a moral and legal obligation to.”

Frederick, does the GRA offer deals like the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for reporting Tax Cheats ?

The IRS has two (2) programs for whistle-blowers,as follow:
Program 1 – For cases involving less than $2 million of tax, with a reward as high as 15% .

Program 2- For cases involving $2 million or more of tax, with a reward as high as 30%.

Just say the word and I’ll be singing like a canary on a proud,very proud Berbician .