Basseterre, St. Kitts, June 07, 2018 (SKNIS): Appearing on “Working for You” on June 6, Edward Gift, Comptroller at the St. Kitts and Nevis Inland Revenue Department, said that a good tax system is one which has administrative ease. The department has thus embarked upon various initiatives to contribute to this simplicity.
“What we have done is that a lot of our customers have noted to us that they would have loved to interact and pay their taxes online. So, the department has launched several initiatives,” said the comptroller.
One initiative, he said, is the payment of property tax online.
“This could be paid online from the comfort of your home, where you log on to www.sknird.com and pay or you can make a payment through National Bank internet portal and you pay Inland Revenue there. So, we have gone to do that. They have seen it fit to do that,” he said.
Also for businesses, the department has facilitated the payment of all their taxes online without actually having to come into the office.
“So, we have e-filing, e-payment available. You heard the prime minister speaking with regards to business registration, and a number of business licenses having been the highest amount issued. For business license or registration information, you do not have to come in to the Inland Revenue Department to do that. That can be done online at our website,” said the comptroller.
Another online initiative that is underway is the ability to carry out the driver’s license renewal.
“Once there is a renewal, they can complete their entire process online where they upload their documents for their driver’s license, pay their fee and then come to the Inland Revenue Department to collect the driver’s license card upon presentation of certain information for verification purposes.”
He further explained that the driver’s license and the entire vehicle registration process would be online before the end of the year. The driver’s license process will launch before the end of June.
In terms of verifying information in relation to persons with forged documents, Mr. Gift said that various safeguards and parameters to reduce the risk of that are in place.
“We understand our responsibility with regards to this process. This is something that we have not taken lightly,” he said. “While we are launching this process, we want to also include the process where we will be doing certain verification with other state agencies that would make the process much easier when we move online so that we could have later on automatic validation of information from whether it’s social security or even the vehicle inspection sites that they have around the Federation.”
