The Appeals Court has upheld the High Court’s decision and ordered Unicomer (Courts St. Vincent) Ltd. to pay the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines $12.66 million in unpaid taxes, including interest and penalties.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said the sum of $12.66 million, perhaps, is now closer to $20 million or thereabouts.
This case was heard on January 29th of this year, and the judgement was reserved and delivered on April 7th. Gonsalves stated this while speaking on the Issue at Hand programme on WEFM radio.
”The Comptroller of Inland Revenue had done an audit of the accounts of Unicomer (Courts) for the period 2007 to 2011, and subsequently to that review into 2015. The Comptroller of Inland Revenue gave notice to Unicomer of the intention of the Inland Revenue Department to raise additional assessments to the tax in the sum of $12.66 million, inclusive of interest and penalties.”
”Unicomer appealed to the income tax under the law or to the Income Tax Commissioners. The appeals commissioners upheld the position of the Comptroller of Inland Revenue; Unicomer went to the High Court, and the High Courts ruled in favour of the Comptroller of Inland Revenue.”
”Unicomer appealed, and all three appeal judges agreed to dismiss the appeal of Unicomer and affirm judgement for the Comptroller of the Inland Revenue. The sum of $12.66 million, perhaps, is now closer to $20 million or thereabouts.”
”Of course, Unicomer has the right to appeal to the Privy Council; I don’t know whether they’re going to do that. They may well do it because it is a significant amount of money,” Gonsalves stated.
Gonsalves said the judgement demonstrates that we must always be vigilant when collecting our taxes. Particularly from the 20% of the companies that pay about 80% of the company taxes.
