Belize Tax Service Says Munnings Failed to Stick to Payment Plan

The Belize Tax Service is defending its decision to take well-known business owner, Andrew Munnings, to court over unpaid taxes. Earlier this year, BTS released a list of people and businesses that owed substantial taxes to the Government of Belize to prompt them to pay the amount owed. Among those listed was Munnings, who came forward to defend his reputation, clarifying that he was on a payment plan. Now, several months later, Munnings is facing jail time, and the public is speaking out. Several members of the community have spoken up in Munnings defense, maintaining that Belize Tax Service should not have penalized the small business owner. However, according to Director General of the Belize Tax Service, this is simply the due process that occurs when someone consistently fails to pay their taxes.

 

Michelle Longsworth, Director General, Belize Tax Service

“This is not about punishing small businesses or whatever terms is being used. This is about ensuring that there is fairness in the tax system like Mr. Munnings business, there are many small businesses across beliefs, many entrepreneurs who are struggling to keep their business alive. But these small businesses, they faithfully meet their tax obligations despite the challenges that they face. And so it would be very unfair to them if others who refuse to comply were allowed to avoid these responsibilities. Everybody has a responsibility. Now, every effort was made to work with Mr. Munnings. We offered him payment arrangements. And when we offer taxpayers payment arrangement, we go through a whole process on your ability to pay. There’s a questionnaire that we have to go through, which we determine your ability to pay and how much you are willing to pay. So it is just not us saying you have to pay amount. We work with taxpayers. We even said to him that. If you stick to your payment arrangement, this is offered not only to him, but to all taxpayers. When taxpayers come in and they can’t come up with a lump sum, because we know not everybody can come up with a hundred thousand or two hundred thousadnd or what they owe, but at the end of the day, if they stick to their payment arrangement, they can always apply for a waiver of penalty and interest. We said to Mr. Munnings, we are willing to consider the waiver of your penalty and interest. Once you stick to your payment plan and pay your court taxes, he defaulted on those. And the normal position of the department is that if you fail to comply or you default on your payment installments, then your penalty and interest are back in full.”