Govt actually reducing tax, says Finance Minister

Curtis Rampersad Business Editor

If you live in a standard, one-bathroom house in the Tunapuna/Piarco area, get ready for an annual property tax of about $1,296.

Residents who have two bathrooms in their homes in the San Juan/Laventille area can expect a property tax bill next month of approximately $1,215.

And if your house in St Joseph Village in San Fernando has at least one ensuite bathroom and a speciality area like a dining room or library, then you may be paying $2,365 a year in property tax.

Executive homes which contain at least as many bathrooms as there are bedrooms, especially in areas like Westmoorings, Valsayn, Lange Park and Sumadh Gardens in San Fernando, will be charged more in property taxes.

For instance, an executive home in Westmoorings will incur a tax of $5,670 while one in Valsayn could have a property tax of $5,184.

These are some of the property tax projections contained in a Ministry of Finance press advertisement on Tuesday titled ’Property tax is less than you think’.

It included a calculation of how property tax figures are arrived at and a breakdown of what these costs could be, based on the size of homes, their annual rental value and annual taxable value.

To calculate property tax, residents have to take the annual rental value, less ten per cent and multiply this by three per cent to determine the amount.

For example, a San Juan home with one bathroom and an annual rental value of $30,000 would have an taxable value of $27,000 and would have a property tax of $810 a year.

A Westmoorings home with an annual rental value of $210,000 would have a taxable value of $189,000 and an annual property tax of $5,670, the ministry ad said.

Of the 16 locations throughout Trinidad projected in the ad, the ministry’s calculations showed that property tax would be lowest for a one-bathroom home at Golconda between San Fernando and Princes Town. Here a house would incur $324 a year in property taxes.

Customers are expected to start receiving their property tax bills by the end of March.

Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira has said, under the new rates, the average homeowner would pay about $81 a month in property taxes and that the Government was actually reducing the tax from previous years. (Trinidad Express)