It's January and that means your property tax is almost due, but as always, the early birds will get a 15% discount in January, 10% in February, and 5% in March.
Still, many are calling this year's discount just a mask for the fact that property tax has gone up. Yup, in 2022 as the global pandemic continues to rage Belize City residents are facing 1% hike in the rate of property tax. It likely means that those who manage to pay in time to get that 15% off will end up paying more or less what they paid last year.
We heard it first back in December on Sunup on 7 when City valuation manager Troy Smith appeared on Sunup on 7. He told us that the council made this adjustment to avoid an even bigger 12% one and that their actions are all geared toward moving the dial on millions in back taxes:
Troy Smith - City Valuator
"The council is looking for ways to make the process more expedient or effective so as to get this revenue arrears down because it's millions of dollars and we ask city residents to be a part of the change in your city by paying your tax and tax with the service but a lot of times people want services but don't pay the tax and the council is not business that makes profit it's just to make the city run smoothly by the tax that you pay. What we have done every five years it's a reassessment that we call mass valuation or we call it quinquenal, the 5 years is when it comes to do a revaluation of the entire city. For the past 10 years we have not done one, reason be many challenges we have in the city and even greater now since 2020 the pandemic came and so the council decided not to implement that adjustment, it would be a significant increase in your tax and we decide to hold back on that and then the law gave the council the power to make the change in the rate, over 20 years we have not even changed the rate of taxes for a while and so there is 2 rates that we charge at the council, for occupied taxes 9% and for unoccupied 2% but this year we decided this is the quinquenal period not to implement that tremendous increase of tax and to amended the rate from a 9% to a 10% so a 1% adjustment in the rate and that still give you a break because if you look at the 1% increase with the incentive package, a person that owes the council 108.00 for the year, their tax last year was 108 but this year will be like 120 but if you apply the 15% incentive and you pay early, it goes back to like 104, so you still get an ease. If you wait until February, you apply the 10, it comes back to the same108.00 but if you wait until March you'd pay 109.00. So you'd pay a little more, so the incentive offset the adjustment in rate as to give the property owner still a next ease and so by law the law gave the council the power to adjust it to 12.5 if the council so choose but that's killing, we decide to offset it by hold back the adjustments and then just give the rate change of a 1%."
And while that 1% came as an across-the-board piece of bad news the City Council's next move could prove beneficial to some while being an additional strain to others.
We're talking about the mayor's new formula for determining trade license payments. Back in December, he told us that it will all depend on the businesses location:
Bernard Wagner - Mayor, Belize City
"Next year we have the trade license reform which will enable business like yourself to reduce the cost of a trade license. Now Jules will be able to measure his productive space and by measuring his space define which economic zone he operates in and find out square footage which will be gazetted, so he will be able to go to the gazette and work out his own trade license in a transparent accountable manner and that way now, we will see where some businesses that operate in the different sectors of the zones, you have the developed, undeveloped, the emerging, the cost of doing business is less and so what will happen there now is that you will see businesses moving from those developed areas and you will see emerging business beginning to happen in those undeveloped areas."
Property taxes are actually due on March 1st while trade license payments became due in October of 2021.
