TCI: “Hotel & Tourism Taxation Ordinance Amendments”

#Providenciales, April 15, 2019 – Turks and Caicos – The Revenue Department within the Ministry of Finance would like to inform stakeholders and the general public of recent amendments to the Hotel and Tourism (Taxation) Ordinance 2019 (hereinafter “the Ordinance”). 

The amended Ordinance includes the following provisions:

·       A rate variation for all-inclusive hotels effectively reducing their tax rate to 7.2%. All existing all-inclusive hotels will be Grand-fathered in.   Any new all-inclusives going forward are subject to the following qualifiers to apply the varied rate:

o   <300 guest rooms per single premises; and

• 3-year average tax remittance <$1,000,000 per single premises
• A period of Amnesty (April 1st to May 31st 2019) under the HTT Ordinance to waive penalties on taxes that fell due on or before March 31st 2019 subject to the following provisions:
  • Taxes paid before March 31st or within the first 30 days of the Amnesty Period can benefit from a 100% waiver of penalties upon written request to the Revenue Department.
  • Taxes paid after the first 30 days of amnesty, but paid within 45 days of the amnesty period, can benefit from a 50% waiver of penalties upon written request to the Revenue Department.
  • Taxes paid after 45 days but within the remaining 15 days of the amnesty period can benefit from a 25% waiver of penalties upon written request.
• A provision to enter into an agreement for the remittance in payment of the outstanding taxes due and payable and the accrued penalties in full or in installments in writing to the Revenue Department with terms not exceeding April 30, 2021.  All payments under the Amnesty provisions which resulted in a reduction of accrued penalties shall be paid by the end of April 2021.

• Amendments to the Penalty rate and structure which resulted in a ‘one-off’ penalty application at a rate of 20% and the introduction of an interest rate of 1.5% of the outstanding taxes that will be applied for each month the taxes remains outstanding.
• Validation of taxes collected in respect of guest less than 12 years of age since enactment of the Ordinance in 1985.
• The requirement to retain records has been changed to 7 years instead of 24 months.

Stakeholders and other interested parties are encouraged to obtain a copy of the Amended Ordinance from the Attorney General Chambers and review these and other amendments. All queries can be sent to the Revenue Department in Grand Turk & Providenciales or the District Commissioner’s Offices in the family Islands.

Press Release: TCIG