Amendment to shorten ABST return time passes, with strong objections from Pringle and Walker

In spite of objections from the Opposition bench – in particular, from
the Member for All Saints East and St. Luke, Jamale Pringle, and the
Member for Barbuda, Trevor Walker – the Government passed
the Antigua and Barbuda Sales Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2024, when the
Lower House sat on February 22.
 
This legislation reduces the period in which businesses are required
to lodge ABST returns — from 30 days after the end of the tax period
to 15 days.
 
Those who fail to file in a timely manner will face penalties,
according to the law, which takes effect on March 1.
 
However, Opposition Leader Pringle – a businessman himself – says
this amendment may prove challenging for a number of companies
because of how they are paid by their customers.

 
He says the new deadline is going to add to the bind in which many
business owners currently find themselves.

During the debate, the MP suggested that the Government use a
method in which the 15-day remittance period could be applied to
businesses that collect cash payment at the point of sale.

Then those in the service industries, who do not usually collect
payment immediately, could be allowed to make their payments
within a later window, Pringle said, and thereby avoid a penalty.
He pointed out, as well, that businesses usually depend on each
other’s remittances to ensure their own taxes are paid.
 
Pringle noted that not every business owner has surplus money
from which they can pay their ABST returns until they receive full
payment for services rendered.
 
Pringle said this amendment will not impact those businesses that
have been failing to pay their taxes, but will affect those who are
bearing the burden already and struggling to make ends meet.

Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle.
 
Meanwhile, MP Walker said, flatly, that he was not supporting the
Bill.

 
Walker reminded the Government bench that, currently, tax
compliance is less than 50 percent, and that situation has been
further exacerbated by the recent increase of the ABST from 15
percent to 17 percent.
If businesses were having difficulty remitting the tax in a 30-day
timeframe, he asked, how is it now possible for them to do so in a
shorter time frame and with the tax being increased?
 
Walker said that the Browne Administration continues to put a
strain on the business sector, which usually, in some way, impacts
consumers.

That was Barbuda MP Trevor Walker.